The Golden State Warriors get a shot to avenge a historic collapse while also attempting to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season when they visit the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.
The clubs met Sunday in San Francisco, a game in which the Warriors led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter and 19 with under 10 minutes to play before watching the Mavericks score 33 of the night’s final 41 points to pull out a 107-101 win.
The 19-point, fourth-quarter advantage marked the largest blown lead in a defeat in the NBA this season, while the 21-point advantage squandered was the most by the Warriors in a loss since 2007.
Golden State was missing Klay Thompson (illness) and Draymond Green (back) in that one, but will have Thompson back for the rematch.
“I’m playing,” Thompson said. “I didn’t come all the way to Dallas to watch.”
Thompson didn’t fly with the team to Minnesota for Tuesday’s game, a 129-114 defeat.
Spencer Dinwiddie (24 points), Dorian Finney-Smith (14) and Reggie Bullock (12) led the Mavs’ comeback Sunday at Golden State, much of which took place while Luka Doncic (34) was on the bench.
Dallas followed up the road win with another against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, with Doncic going for 25 points and Jalen Brunson 22 in a 109-104 triumph.
While the Warriors will take the court Thursday having lost six of eight, the Mavericks have won two straight and eight of 10.
Down 11 1/2 games to the Warriors in the Western Conference standings on Christmas, the Mavericks can climb within five of the second-place club with a win.
“Obviously, we’re somewhere in the upper echelon of the West; we’re fighting for home-court advantage,” Dinwiddie said after Tuesday’s win. “We know in the playoffs when you possibly have the best player on the floor every night, you have a chance to win basketball games. So it’s about coming together.
“Our roster is set. It’s just pushing forward and trying to be the most cohesive unit we can possibly be.”
The Warriors have the same goal, but have struggled in attaining it with Thompson in and out of the lineup, Green having missed the last 23 games, Andre Iguodala working a light schedule until the postseason, and James Wiseman still awaiting his season debut.
Even healthy players have struggled since the club’s 41-13 start. Stephen Curry, who seemingly couldn’t miss in his brilliant All-Star Game performance, has shot just 32.9 percent on 3-pointers during the Warriors’ 10-game slump.
After watching the Mavericks shoot 63.2 percent in the fourth quarter during their comeback Sunday and then seeing the Timberwolves put up 129 points on 52.8-percent shooting two days later, Curry believes his team’s biggest issues are at the other end of the floor.
“Nights like tonight,” he analyzed after Tuesday’s loss, “where you just don’t play a good brand of basketball defensively to give yourself a chance to win on the road against a team that you allow to have life all night, you’re not going to win a lot of games that way.”
Having won two of the first three meetings with the Warriors, the Mavericks can claim the season series — the first playoff-position tie-breaker — with a victory Thursday.
