Warriors-Mavericks: Golden State Puts Up a Fight, Somewhat

The Golden State Warriors were playing the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas.

So, far this season, the teams have split the series.

The Mavericks started out from the field and stayed that way—even though it wasn't the lack of defensive effort.

The Mavericks were hitting their outside shots throughout the game. Specifically, Antoine Wright—and then Jason Terry.

The Mavericks were able to build leads up of 16 and at the end of the first quarter the Warriors were down 11. They played better in the second quarter and got to within nine by half time.

As the third quarter started, Jim Barnett stated that how the Warriors would respond for the first three minutes would show how the Warriors would play. The Warriors cut the Dallas lead to three points.

The Mavericks then went on a run to bring the lead back up to double digits.  The Warriors then came back on a run. 

But during that time though Anthony Morrow was called for his fourth foul, which brought him to the bench.

Even with that, the Warriors had the ability to bring the lead down to two points, but Monta Ellis blew the layup. If Ellis had made that that layup, it would have been huge for the Warriors, but once that happened the Mavericks ended the quarter on a 13-2 run.

Including eight points by Juan Barrea. Yes, Juan Barrea. This is the problem for the Warriors—they let crappy little role players look like All Stars. The other day in New Orleans, it was Hilton Armstrong.

Now even more bad news—Brandan Wright looked lost tonight. He did hustle, but he missed some close shots that should have been made. Defensively, he looked lost as well.

Stephen Jackson continues to turn the ball over. The Warriors got outrebounded by 18, and allowed 58.5 percent shooting. Jackson got another technical.

Now the question marks of the game. Anthony Morrow's third foul—where was it? CJ Watson made an excellent block, but was called for a foul even though he got call ball, so again—why was there a foul called?

The Mavs had four incidences of illegal screens, yet only one was called? Why weren't the other three called? Where was Joe Forte's head when giving the technical on Jackson?  

Finally, where was the defensive pressure the Warriors had earlier in the game? Ellis finished the game with five steals. In total, the Warriors had 11 takeaways, and what kept them in the game throughout was the points off of turnovers. But once the Warriors started turning the ball over after Morrow picked up his fourth foul, they were never able to recover.

Now onto the good news. Anthony Morrow went 10-11 from the field scoring 29 points. Jackson only took 10 shots, making five of them—including 2-4 from three.

Jackson should also be getting his technical rescinded, though. Just because he has a reputation that precedes him, the technical was a joke.

Anthony Randolph continues to impress with his hustle.  Ellis continues to hit 20 points a night.