The Golden State Warriors are one game away from the NBA Finals after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 109-100 in Game 3 Sunday night at American Airlines Center.
The Warriors lead the series 3-0, and Game 4 is Tuesday night in Dallas.
No team in NBA history has won a series down 3-0.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 31 points (5-10 3FG), five rebounds, and 11 assists, and Andrew Wiggins had a career playoff-high 27 points and a career playoff-high-tying 11 rebounds.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with a game-high 40 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
Doncic did his job Sunday night, but things fell apart in the third as the Warriors outscored the Mavs by nine in the quarter and had their largest lead of 14.
According to Doncic, the Warriors have excellent continuity, which has made things difficult for the Mavs.
“I think the Warriors are playing incredible,” Doncic said. “Everybody knows their role. Everybody just stays together. They’re a long-built team. They’ve been together for a long time, and I think they’re playing good basketball, so that’s what I think is going to be really difficult, and these past three games, it’s been very difficult.”
The Warriors killed the Mavs on the glass. Golden State outrebounded Dallas 47-34 and had 18 second-chance points. Kevon Looney had a game-high 12 rebounds. Doncic gave Looney a lot of credit, but he feels the Mavs have to do a better job on the boards going forward.
“I think, like I say, the rebounding. We’ve got to be way better. We’ve got to be more physical. It’s really tough with Looney; he’s an unbelievable player. He’s very underrated. Nobody talks about him. But I think he’s been doing an amazing job, and it’s tough with him. He’s a strong dude, and he helps them a lot. He’s a great role player, and we’ve got to do a better job boxing him out.”
Mavs coach Jason Kidd added: “Yeah, we just have to be physical and make contact to keep them from crashing. A lot of times, they hit us too late, and so when you’re playing small, we have to just — we’ve got to hit; first, we can’t hit second.”
This series is probably over. However, the sentiment from the Mavs is they have to take it one game at a time.
“One game at a time,” Spencer Dinwiddie, who has 26 points off the bench, said. “I mean, that’s really it.”
Jalen Brunson, who had 20 points, added: “One game at a time, plain and simple. That’s all we have, one game at a time.”
No matter what happens the rest of the way, the 2021-22 NBA season is a success for the Dallas Mavericks, but it would be nice to get one game in this series, and we’ll see if they can get that one in Game 4.
