Warriors VS Mavericks

2022 - 5 - 27

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Golden State Headed to NBA Finals After Beating Dallas Mavericks (The New York Times)

After injuries contributed to the end of a streak of five straight finals runs, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are back.

Green rushed into the stands with a stack of N.B.A. finals hats to give them to members of his family. It took time for Thompson to regain his familiar feel for the game, and Curry missed the final 12 games of the regular season with a sprained foot. “We were pups at the time, but definitely great memories of playing in Oracle, the Warrior chants 25 minutes before a tipoff, the haze in the building, if you know what I mean. Golden State finished with the worst record in the league, a humbling blow for a franchise that had seemed on the cusp of establishing itself as a dynasty. On Monday, Kerr described the trade for Wiggins as “the key to all of this.” Golden State’s depth at the wing position had evaporated after the 2019 finals. Curry sat on the bench looking almost like he couldn’t believe it, then the buzzer sounded and he jumped up and down waving a towel in the air. We took an experienced and dynastic San Antonio team to a hard-fought series,” Thompson said. Earlier this season, in a podcast interview with the former player JJ Redick, Green acknowledged his uncertainty about the future — both the team’s and his own — as Golden State labored through that listless 2019-20 season. A few weeks later, Durant, who had helped Golden State win two championships, left for the Nets. Four games into the subsequent season, Curry broke his left hand. Golden State won three championships and advanced to five straight finals from 2015 to 2019, before it all began to come unglued. He thought about how lucky he was to have regained his explosiveness this season, how lucky he was to be able to play basketball for a living again. But their celebrated core — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — is together again and playing some of its best basketball, no small achievement considering the team’s triumphant past.

Photos: Warriors clinch NBA Finals spot in Game 5 vs. Mavericks (The Mercury News)

Dubs followed up their Game 4 loss with a drubbing Thursday at Chase Center to end the season for Dallas in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

But in the fourth quarter, the Warriors’ youngsters — Jordan Poole and rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody – charged back, cutting the Mavericks’ once big lead down to single digits. While the Warriors weren’t able to complete the sweep of the Mavericks on Tuesday night, they redeemed themselves and won the series on their home floor. The swing missed and the Mavericks won by 10, but it surely put a scare into Dallas and built up confidence in the kiddos.

5 takeaways from Warriors' series-clinching win against Mavs (NBA.com)

Vintage Klay, steady Steph and a young & athletic supporting cast propels Golden State past Dallas for its 6th Finals berth in the last 8 seasons.

Absolutely. The danger, though, is the belief that deep runs for Luka and the Mavericks will now be less of a surprise and more regular. And he did win a pair of MVPs and three titles in the past. A better big man is a must, and the Mavs must also decide on guard Jalen Brunson, a free agent this summer. And so it ends, five games into the Western Conference finals, perhaps eight more games than they were expected to last this postseason. Curry won the first Kobe Bryant Award at the All-Star Game in February, and now adds the Magic Johnson award for being voted MVP in the Western Conference finals. Wiggins is arguably a better scorer than Iguodala was during his peak-Warriors years, bringing more aggressive shooting and plenty of bounce off the dribble. Even Curry would admit he ripped the nets with better consistency and efficiency in the past. Poole developed the personality and mindset of a go-to player and therefore became one. If so, and he delivers, it’s hard to imagine the Warriors being denied another title. Will these fleeting stretches by Klay fly in the NBA Finals? Dare we say it could mean the difference between the Warriors sipping champagne and drowning in sorrows? It smacked of smugness, of forgetting the part about “dumb” luck (like Minnesota passing twice on drafting Steph Curry) and a pinch of arrogance. In that sense, Lacob was right; the franchise is stretching the championship lifespan of its core trio by making the right decisions.

Warriors vs. Mavericks score, takeaways: Golden State closes out ... (CBSSports.com)

Stephen Curry and the Warriors are back in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years.

Golden State's bid to win the 2019 Finals effectively ended when Thompson tore his ACL. Now, their trip to the 2022 Finals is coming thanks to perhaps the best game of Thompson's postseason. After two years away, one of the greatest heat checks in NBA history will take his talents to the league's biggest stage and compete for his fourth ring. There were moments in the past few months in which it looked like Thompson would struggle to stay on the floor in games like this. In a sense, this is the sort of Finals run Kerr has always wanted to make. LeBron James couldn't do it alone in Cleveland. The Mavericks have done well to surround Doncic with an array of shooters and defenders. The Warriors had more of it than anyone else. The Mavericks hung around early and made a run toward the end of the third quarter to briefly cut the deficit to single digits, but they never led on the night. Curry was the only Warrior to earn All-NBA honors, and they're playing against one of the best players in the NBA. Many teams, under similar circumstances, would've folded without their best player playing at his best. Kevon Looney's 18 rebounds gave the Warriors a plus-17 margin on the glass. The Golden State Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight seasons. You can attribute Golden State's 3-1 collapse against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 to many things, but a hobbled Stephen Curry would be high on that list, so when Curry seemingly tweaked his ankle early in Game 5 with yet another 3-1 lead, Warriors fans had every right to panic. They punched their ticket on Thursday night with a comfortable 120-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals to win the series, 4-1.

Luka Doncic Says 'I Played Terrible' After Mavericks Eliminated by ... (Bleacher Report)

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic accepted responsibility for the team's Game 5 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, which marked the ...

Trying to re-sign Jalen Brunson, who averaged 21.6 points in the playoffs, will be the top internal task on the to-do list. "If we talk about our season, I'm really proud of this team—everybody, every player, every staff member," he said. For Doncic, his offseason focus will be the defensive end. "I don't like losing, especially like this," the three-time All-Star told reporters. I've got to be way better there. They made the postseason six times over the past 10 years but were eliminated in the opening round each time.

Warriors beat Mavericks 120-110 to return to NBA Finals (Fox News)

Klay Thompson shimmied his way to 32 points and the Golden State Warriors advanced to their sixth NBA Finals in the past eight seasons by beating the Dallas ...

After making just seven 3-pointers in the first four games of the series, Thompson had eight this game. Golden State is now 9-0 at the Chase Center this postseason, tying the 2017 team for the most consecutive home wins in a single postseason in NBA history. They are the first team to make six finals appearances in an eight-year span since the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls had a pair of three-peats from 1991-93 and 1996-98.

Warriors-Mavericks postgame notes: Nintendo Klay, trophy-hunting ... (The Athletic)

A behind-the-scenes look at the night the Warriors won the West — again — and what's next for the Mavericks.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, so for it to be right on the other side of the door — all I’ve got to do is walk through. “It definitely (makes) me want to be here with basketball shoes on instead of jeans and a hoodie,” he said with a laugh. Obviously, there’s a lot of things to do, but I think, like I say, we made a huge step, and I think we are on a great path.” Instead, the retired 43-year-old was on hand in street clothes as part of his role as a team special advisor that began last summer. He’s one of the best to do it for sure. To be more specific, he plays on a throwback console and cites “Super Mario World” and “Super Smash Bros.” as his games of choice. But with his fourth season coming to an end far deeper into the postseason than just about everyone predicted, it’s worth remembering that he’s (still) just getting started. The outfit was there for all to see postgame, as Curry sat among reporters for approximately 15 minutes while Draymond Green held court with the press and his teammate waited for his turn at the podium. To the victor goes the spoils, in other words. Once upon a time, somewhere around 1985, this 44-year-old man was taking photographs of his victory over Mike Tyson in Punch-Out with the hopes of winning the award that turned out to be an urban legend. Yet, from Golden State’s elation to Dallas’ elimination and all the fascinating sights and sounds in between, there was plenty to take in that didn’t show up on your television. We’ve seen the Golden State Warriors celebrating an NBA Finals appearance plenty of times in this era — five times in seven years at Oracle Arena before this one on Thursday night, to be exact.