If they fail to reach the NBA playoffs, the Warriors will look back on Wednesday night in Dallas with a lot of regret for a long, long time.
Facing a depleted Dallas Mavericks team that they’re chasing in the Western Conference, Golden State missed a chance to keep its recent good fortunes rolling after coming up short in the team’s 33rd clutch game of the 2024-25 NBA season with a 111-107 loss at American Airlines Center.
Many will point to the final two minutes of the game, when the Warriors missed three of their final four shots including one that was blocked, Stephen Curry missed his first free throw of the final quarter all season and Jimmy Butler III drew an offensive foul driving to the hoop for a potential tying bucket.
Those final 120 seconds were crucial, no doubt, but the Warriors had only themselves to blame for being in that position.
A team that has prided itself on being fundamentally sound throughout its championship years had difficulty completing the most basic of tasks against the Mavericks in the first half. The Warriors missed seven — seven — layups, six in the second quarter.
That isn’t all that alarming, but considering Dallas was missing all of its big men, including nine-time NBA All-Star Anthony Davis, the middle of the paint should have been wide open. And to their credit, the Warriors did a good job of attacking in the key, getting nearly 58 percent of their scoring total inside the paint.
“We messed around with the game for too long and then we left ourselves vulnerable,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Obviously, they cashed in. We left the game in the balance because of our poor play earlier in the game.”
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It didn’t help that the Warriors had another rough night with ball security. They committed 16 turnovers, three by Butler – his most in two months.
“If we take care of the ball, I think we’re in a much better position,” Butler told reporters..
For a while, it looked like Golden State would be able to overcome the self-inflicted pains. The Warriors closed the second quarter on a 17-5 run then ended the third on a 14-4 clip.
Each time, the Warriors failed to carry the momentum over.
They might have been able to overcome that, too, had they not slipped up as often as they did earlier in the night.
“We did fight down the stretch and tried to give ourselves a chance,” Curry told reporters. “But a team like Dallas … they were playing hard the whole game with really nothing to lose. Those are hardest type of teams to play. If you make mistakes you give them life. Especially at home, it comes down to a possession here, a possession there.
“Didn’t go our way.”
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