1) With 3:02 remaining in the fourth, Raymond Felton hit a layup to cut the Warriors’ lead to five, 113-108. For any other team, having a ten-point advantage trimmed in half in the final minutes of the game might make for sweaty palms and increased heart rates, but not for these Warriors. What followed next was back-to-back-to-back three-point plays by Thompson, Barnes, and Curry to extend the lead to 14 and quell any thoughts of a Mavs’ comeback. In a matter of 64 seconds, a two possession game was turned into a blowout; that’s how lethal and quick the Dubs can strike.
2) Klay Thompson carried the Warriors in the fourth quarter. Yes, Steph had a great game as usual (31 points, 9 assists, 10 rebounds), but it was Klay’s 17 fourth quarter points that bailed the Warriors out when the Mavs were pushing and Curry was resting on the bench. Klay shot 10-of-15 from deep for the game and hit his 1,000th career 3-pointer, making him the second-fastest to hit that mark (behind Steph, of course).
3) Oh, Steph, don’t hurt ’em. Like. That.
4) David Lee’s entire Warriors tenure in one stat line: 16 points, 16 rebounds … and somehow he was a game-high minus-24 in 27 minutes and his team took the L.
5) Remember when Curry tweeted out his block of Lee as way of goodbye to the big man? Lee finally got Steph back on a rejection in the second quarter.
6) I wouldn’t say Harrison Barnes shook out of his offensive funk (he did not look confident taking jumpers), but he did drop 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. He was also 2-of-3 from distance, making this the first time since the tilt with OKC on March 3 that HB both hit a 3-pointer and scored in double-digits in the same game.
7) James Michael MacAdoo had a tough stretch in the third with Bogut out. On multiple possessions he timed the roll beautifully but after receiving the ball at the top of the key, he ended up missing the dunk or the pass to an open shooter, or committed an offensive foul, and sometimes all of those things on the same possession. Dray wasn’t always Dray in those roll plays, he had to learn how to do it, so I’m all for giving Mac a chance to figure out those situations.
8) Dirk Nowitzki was by far the best Maverick in the game (24 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks). He’s 37 years old, same as Kobe. It’s truly remarkable what he’s doing in year-17 in the league.
9) This win came at a price: Andrew Bogut suffered a strained left toe and will likely miss tomorrow’s game versus the Spurs and their double-big lineup.
10) The last time the Warriors won a regular season game in San Antonio was on Valentine’s Day, 1997. Want to know how long ago that was? I was in high school then and might have sent a page (a page, not a text) to my then-girlfriend’s beeper that read “143.”