Despite Steph Curry Injury, Luka Doncic-Less Mavs Fall to Warriors

Despite putting up a valiant effort with Luka Doncic and Christian Wood sidelined due to injuries, the severely undermanned Dallas Mavericks couldn't pull off the upset against the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 4, 2023

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Although the Dallas Mavericks (28-26) came into Saturday's matchup with the Golden State Warriors (27-26) with Luka Doncic and Christian Wood sidelined due to injuries, Dallas' severely undermanned roster put up a valiant effort in what was ultimately a 119-113 loss.

It was a wire-to-wire win for the Warriors, as they led the entire time and built a lead as large as 23 points, but the Mavs fought hard in the fourth quarter and made the defending champs sweat after Steph Curry left the game with a leg injury.

All five of the Mavs' starters scored in double-figures, led by Spencer Dinwiddie with 25 points on 9-17 shooting from the field, including 3-5 from deep. Dinwiddie also had three rebounds and four assists in his 33 minutes of action.

Tim Hardaway Jr. wasn't far behind Dinwiddie, as he finished with 22 points on 5-10 shooting from deep. Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Green and Dwight Powell tallied 18, 12 and 10 points respectively.

Promising rookie Jaden Hardy led Dallas' bench unit with 11 points in 13 minutes while shooting 3-8 from the field. Although the 20-year-old still has his rookie-struggle moments, he's learning and contributing every time he gets an opportunity from coach Jason Kidd.

With the loss the Mavs fall from fourth to sixth in the Western Conference standings, with the seventh-place Warriors now just a half-game behind them. Dallas is now 0-7 this season without Luka Doncic.

Next up, the Mavs travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Jazz in the second of their five-game road trip on Monday night. Doncic missed the last matchup against Utah, as Dallas lost 108-100 on Jan. 28, and it appears that he'll miss this one as well.

With a banged up roster and not much room for error in the Western Conference standings, the Mavs' urgency to make a trade before the Feb. 9 deadline could be heightened. Will they take a gamble and pull off a trade for Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving? Will they go another route considering they've been in a handful of other trade rumors?

Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for updates, as momentum with trade talks will continue to build in the next five days.

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Published Feb 4, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.