fighters vs. Mavericks score, takeaways: Golden State closes Luka Doncic, Dallas, return to NBA Finals (2023)

Doncic coincides with Jordania

The season is over for Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, but this was a run to remember as they reached the Western Conference Finals as a shock. Along the way, Doncic averaged 31.9 points, 9.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game in the playoffs. This is the third consecutive postseason in which he has scored at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists. He joins Michael Jordan as the only other player in NBA history to achieve such a feat. Jordan did it five times in a row between 1989 and 1993.

Warriors remain undefeated in the Western playoff series under Kerr

The Warriors are in the Finals for the sixth time in eight seasons, and they have never lost a Western Conference playoff series since Steve Kerr took over as head coach in 2014. During that time, they've been a remarkable 18-0 in the series. . . Perhaps more impressively, most of those matchups weren't close. Only two of them went to seven games, and the Warriors are 72-21 in Western playoff games in the Kerr era.

Steph Curry named WCF MVP

The NBA introduced the conference finals MVPs named after Magic Johnson (West) and Larry Bird (East) this season. Steph Curry was the winner of this year's inaugural trophy. He averaged 23.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in the series, shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range.

Your 2022 Western Conference champions

It's the Golden State Warriors! After missing the playoffs a season ago, the Warriors return to the Finals for the first time since 2019. The final score was 120-110, Warriors.

Klay with the clincher!

That will do! After another offensive rebound for the Warriors, Klay Thompson just nailed his EIGHTH three-pointer to put the Warriors up to 15. Never say never, but that sure felt like the dagger. There are only 150 seconds left in this game.

clean the glass

Golden State has a plus-six offensive rebound advantage. That's not all, but it's a contributing factor here. Second downs are critical when the defense is this good in the playoffs, and in the fourth quarter, with the Warriors trying to run out the clock, those extra 14 seconds make all the difference.

Dinwiddie and Doncic play a duet

Throughout Luka's career, the question was when Dallas would find him as a co-star. They've had a consistent secondary scorer for him, but Spencer Dinwiddie plays something like a great game every four times he steps on the ground. It's a game of roulette with him, but luckily for Dallas it went well tonight. Those free throws pushed Dinwiddie to 26 points on the night. This is just an 11 point game.

Looney could have secured it

Who says hubs are dead? Kevon Looney's offensive rebounds saved the Warriors against Memphis, and he grabbed two more on one possession to create a Nemanja Bjelica 3 to take the lead to 17.

Incredible third quarter from Doncic

It probably won't be enough, but Doncic's third quarter was great. He scored 15 points and suffered a series of setbacks and fadeouts. This is why he was selected to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive season.

we have a challenge

As soon as the whistle blew, Draymond Green and Jordan Poole started twirling their fingers. Green got a moving screen call in that transfer 3 for Jordan Poole, but live he sure looked clean.

Update: The challenge was unsuccessful. That's five fouls for Draymond.

The most important question of the fourth quarter

Luka Doncic has played all but six minutes so far. They'll probably have some sort of break here to get into the fourth quarter, but Dallas lost their first leg off the bench by four points. So here's the question facing Jason Kidd, with his Mavericks 10 behind and his season on the line: how long will his bench last without Luka?

UPDATE: Doncic starts fourth. He could go either way.

This gets interesting...

Golden State's lead reached 23. It suddenly dropped to nine. Luka Doncic has made his last four shots in this 14-0 run. We have a game here and if Doncic ends up here in the second half, the Warriors will have to work hard to secure their crowning glory.

Putting Klay's masterpiece into perspective

Klay's night, by the numbers (so far!)

• His 27 points are the third most he has scored this postseason.
• This is the 11th time Thompson has made seven or more three-pointers in a playoff game.
• This is the eighth time Thompson has scored 27 or more points in a playoff game without attempting a free throw.

Klay is a warrior through and through.

Klay Thompson didn't have to give that pass to Kevon Looney for easy points. He could have leveled himself and increased his stat total. This will be his night, but the Warriors don't care about those things. They are selflessness personified. No amount of individual honor will rob them of their team-oriented attitude.

big disappointment

Look, I'm not going to criticize Luka Doncic too much. You don't get a whistle. It is often duplicated. He's clearly tired of an entire postseason with his team. But if he shoots 2-for-14 from the field, the Mavericks don't stand a chance. They don't have a secondary star to take over. This list is based on the idea that Doncic will be a star every night. He's not in tonight and the Mavericks are going to lose because of it.

Klay keeps doing it

Klay Thompson was great in the first half and kept it up after the break. Draymond Green just found him with a pass in transition for his sixth three-pointer of the game. Thompson is up 22 points tonight

Just listen to that audience

The Warriors have received quite a bit of justified criticism for putting a price on their fiercest fans. Oracle Arena was one of the noisiest places in all of sports. By moving to Oakland, the Warriors made a fortune financially. Frankly, the revenue streams created by the Chase Center probably helped them enough with their exorbitant tax bill to maintain four near-maximum salaries. But for the most part it hasn't been the same. Chase Center is not Oracle. But Chase Center has never hosted the kind of games Oracle ever did…until tonight. And congratulations to the believers in San Francisco: This building is ROCK.

Good shots in great shots

As an educational exercise, look at a Golden State property and count how many viable shots it could take. On that second possession of the third quarter, they let several slip by before Andrew Wiggins missed a three-pointer. The shot didn't go in, but it was a good move. That's what the Golden State attack does. He rattles the ball over and over until it looks great.

Klay finally appears in the first half

Klay Thompson got off to a shaky start in each of the first four games of this series, scoring only 18 combined points in the first half of Games 1-4. He's locked up tonight. He scored 19 points in the first half to lead all goalscorers and made five 3-pointers.

The route is on its way

It's quiet in San Francisco, but if this continues, we're heading for a spot in the Golden State Finals. The Warriors lead 69-52 after a monstrous offensive performance by their team. Klay Thompson has 19 to take on the apparently injured Stephen Curry, Draymond Green has 10 of his own and with Luka Doncic struggling tonight, Dallas has no clear way back. Get ready for a trophy presentation, because there's one coming up in an hour or so.

Turn play into shots

Draymond Green is such a skilled playmaker that defenders never play him as a goalscorer. Well, he's smart enough to take advantage of that. He faked the handoff, the defense bit the blow and went to the perimeter for a layup. Green doesn't like to shoot, but he knows how to create some easy points for himself here and there.

carrying the burden

It is worth noting that Stephen Curry only played 14 minutes and only took two shots. He's not his typical dominant self at the moment after spraining his ankle in the first quarter. The Warriors do this as a team. Strong in numbers indeed.

curry makes history

Steph Curry has been a consistent enabler tonight and already has seven assists. As a result, he has 800 career postseason assists and has become one of 14 players in NBA history to record 3,000 points and 800 assists in the playoffs.

Moody makes the most of his minutes

Remember when Steve Kerr gave Patrick McCaw actual playoff minutes on Kevin Durant's teams just because he could? To some extent this is similar. The Warriors probably don't have to rely on a rookie in the Western Conference Finals, but Moses Moody has been so much more mature in his minutes against Dallas that he doesn't even feel that way anymore. Those 3 are barely out of the top 18 of the Warriors, and they can practically taste the Finals.

Bjelica la bestia

Nemanja Bjelica is on this team because of his shooting. His defense would be something the Warriors endure, not need. But this quarter was one of his best defensive plays and he managed to hold off Luka Doncic after the Dallas point guard forced the substitution.

How long can Dallas survive without Luka?

We are now more than half way through the second quarter and the Mavericks have yet to bring Luka Doncic back into the game. It's -5 in non-Luka minutes so far.

I hope you never forgot Klay.

This feels so good. Klay Thompson's torn ACL essentially knocked the Warriors out of the 2019 Finals against the Raptors. His two-year absence has kept the Warriors out of contention for the past two seasons. With a chance to reach the Finals again in his first season, Thompson has 16 points in the first half. He helped the Warriors build a 45-32 lead as Dallas tries to regroup in a timeout.

shaken drummond

He stays in the game, but it looks like Draymond Green hurt his hand a bit from that foul. He took a hard hit trying to dunk that ball, and while he remains in play, he's dealing with a bit of pain, as did Stephen Curry with the ankle injury he sustained in the first quarter.

Welcome to Poole's party

That's a quick second-quarter seven points for Jordan Poole, but the star of the show for Golden State right now is Davis Bertans, who lure the Warriors with as many pick-and-rolls as possible. Sure, a hot Bertan can make up for that when he attacks, but in the playoffs, defensive vulnerability can kill you on any possession. Bertans can only play for so many minutes.

Doubling Doncic

Stan Van Gundy just dug into the doubles Golden State throws to Luka Doncic, and to add to that, Dallas has a roster that's pretty safe to double against. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie are the only real threats on his roster aside from Doncic, so if the Warriors set up their defense behind the double correctly, they could easily give themselves time to get back into position after a pass. . The key is to limit Doncic's angle to his catch-and-shoot threats. Dinwiddie's three-pointer late in the first quarter was an example of how Doncic was such a good passer that defending hardly mattered.