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Three thoughts from Warriors’ win over Mavericks, Doncic

By

Jacob Hutchinson

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There’s no quit in this man

The Dallas Mavericks have a wunderkind in Luka Doncic, and that’s fantastic for them. By drafting Doncic, the Mavs immediately became playoff contenders despite an injured and 41-year-old Dirk Nowitzki, a Dennis Smith Jr., who was injured tonight, but on the season, has been a little underwhelming and defensively liable.

But the Warriors have a Wunderteam (a title given to the Austrian national soccer team in the 1930s), and that group combined for a 120-116 win for the start of a four-game home stand.

Here are three thoughts from tonight’s game:

“Burning them if you ain’t quick and nimble”

Tonight’s game featured a host of players who are crafty ball-handlers. Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant  all made people look foolish tonight. As Vanilla Ice, who was raised in Dallas, Texas, rapped on “Ice Ice Baby,” there are consequences if you’re not prepared, specifically, “Burning them if you ain’t quick and nimble.” Even if you are both quick and nimble, that’s probably not enough.

While those three burned defenders, you can also get burned by hustle players like Jonas Jerebko, who, while not particularly quick or nimble by any stretch, works about as hard, if not harder than any other player on the court. While he got dunked on by Doncic tonight, he came back with an all-effort tip-in (shown above) with shades of his game winner against the Utah Jazz and was an absolute machine for the Warriors:

With 10 and a half minutes left, Jerebko had another follow-up tip-in, this time when Curry missed a layup. Jerebko finished with a career-high of 23 points (on an absurd 10-of-12 shooting), 6 rebounds and 3 assists off the bench. Here are a few of his moments leading the Warriors to a 36-point third quarter:

Loco for Luka

At age 19, Luka Doncic is already a superstar. With averages of 18.8 points (43.4 percent shooting), 6.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, Doncic the only rookie in the top three in points, rebounds and assists per game. Doncic made the Mavericks’ first two baskets tonight with back-to-back 3-pointers and finished the first quarter with 14 points.

When LeBron James was given flak for saying he wanted to play with Anthony Davis, he followed up with this bit:

James called out Doncic, a 19-year-old rookie, as being the class of star players along with Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons and all the other players, like Curry, who he didn’t mention. Why would the best player in the world, and debatably the best player of all time, call out a rookie for being in that class of players?

It’s the same reason NBC Sports Bay Area posted this clip below:

At 6’7″ Doncic is a deceptively quick point forward, has fantastic handles, strength, finishing at the rim, court vision, passing, rebounding and long-range shooting ability. He’s already the best player on the Mavericks and All-NBA caliber. He possesses a level of skill and basketball intelligence that is rare for even a veteran, let alone a rookie. It’s almost unbelievable.

Here’s what he did to Jerebko tonight en route to 19 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and a steal and block:

Draymond Green, the deep-range deadeye, and Kevin Durant, the near-triple-double maestro

You read that right. Draymond Green opened up the game with a pair of 3-pointers with his turtle-like shooting motion that so often is met by the ire of fans and teammates. But tonight, Green hit a couple 3-pointers en route to 14 points (6-of-11 shooting), 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. When he scores, especially like he did below, it does wonders for the Warriors offense:

Also fantastic was Durant, whose excellence is easy to take for granted. He was efficient and dominant while Curry was atypically inefficient (22 points on 7-of-22 shooting). Durant had 29 points (9-of-18, 8-of-8 from the free throw line), 12 rebounds and 8 assists tonight. But most importantly, Durant saved the Warriors as they handed away an 18-point fourth-quarter lead to the Doncic-less Mavericks (left with a hip contusion). He pulled up in the clutch with this massive 3-pointer to secure the win:

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