3 things we learned as the Mavericks handled the Warriors, 124-97

In many ways, this game was exactly what we all hoped and dreamed for. The Mavericks went into San Francisco for some stay-up-late basketball vs. the Golden State Warriors and promptly handled them, 124-97.

Dwight Powell (DWIGHT POWELL???) led all scorers with 21 points in 24 minutes, and Luka Doncic not far behind with 20. Eric Paschall was the leading scorer for the Warriors with 13.

In all seriousness, the Mavericks have looked wonky up until the middle of that Philadelphia game the other evening, and it’s quite the relief to see them come onto a visiting court and handle business the way they were expected to in a game against an inferior opponent.

Here’s a bit of what we noticed.

How good are those role player contracts looking?

There was a lot of discussion early on in both our Slack and on the Warriors broadcast about the nice depth Dallas has on its bench. It’s the 2019-20 Warriors, of course, but Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber and Boban Marjanovic all looked very good in extended minutes this evening (more on that a little later).

Maxi was hitting his corner threes in his usual stride, Dwight “Warrior Killer” Powell looked especially sharp with 15 points in the first half alone, and Boban saw 20 minutes with his typical score-extending efficiency.

Conserving energy for the back-to-back

About halfway through the first quarter, Dallas slowly started creeping up the score and never really looked back. They were up almost 20 points at halftime. The Dubs made a brief run in the third quarter, but Rick Carlisle quickly called time out, then shut the door.

It seemed obvious early in the game that the Mavericks were playing to conserve starter energy, if at all possible, since they head down the road for a game against the Sacramento Kings tomorrow evening. We saw lots of early minutes for Boban, Seth Curry and Justin Jackson, among others, and we saw a fair amount of rest for Luka Doncic and Tim Hardaway Jr.

With eight minutes left in the second half, Dallas threw in the towel and cleared the bench, throwing in J.J. Barea, Courtney Lee, and Antonius Cleveland as the Mavs were up about 25 points. This bodes especially well for the team if they get Kristaps Porzingis back tomorrow night — which seems likely, though not yet certain.

Luka was still good and he didn’t even try

In today’s “obvious recap news.” These might be some of Luka’s worst stats of the season and he was still fun. I love this Mavericks team.

Here’s the postgame podcast, Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you can’t see the embed below “More from Mavs Moneyball”, click here. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe by searching “Mavs Moneyball podcast” into your favorite podcast app.