{"id":47423,"date":"2022-05-27T11:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T15:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=47423"},"modified":"2022-05-27T11:39:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T15:39:00","slug":"golden-state-warriors-beat-the-dallas-mavericks-and-return-to-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/05\/27\/golden-state-warriors-beat-the-dallas-mavericks-and-return-to-nba-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors Beat the Dallas Mavericks and Return to NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golden State Warriors beat Dallas in just five games and will return to the NBA Finals. The final series in the Western side of the playoff bracket was <\/span>slightly anti-climactic<\/span><\/a>, but the participants are certainly worth celebrating.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both teams should take great pride in their performances. The Mavericks had to overcome <\/span>Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/b><\/a>\u2019s calf strain to top Utah and were definitive underdogs against Phoenix in the second round. The organization has more proof that Don\u010di\u0107 is a generational playoff performer, and <\/span>Jalen Brunson<\/b><\/a> bounced back from being benched in the playoffs last year to performing like a true secondary scoring option. They discovered an identity by benching center Dwight Powell and playing small, giving Don\u010di\u0107 spacing and the team speed and length in maintaining their strong defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors beat Dallas after putting away Denver and Memphis, and have played exceptionally well to get to this point. Golden State has had no chemistry issues despite never having their full complement of players healthy during the regular season. <\/span>Stephen Curry<\/b><\/a> returned from a foot injury and was just named the first-ever <\/span>Conference Finals MVP<\/span><\/a>. They\u2019ve used their ball-movement offense and the transcendent play of to take down superstars in <\/span>Nikola Joki\u0107<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Ja Morant<\/b><\/a>, and Don\u010di\u0107. What else can we learn from the series, and what lies ahead for each team?<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden State Warriors Beat the Dallas Mavericks and Return to NBA Finals<\/h2>\n

Series takeaways for the Warriors<\/b><\/h3>\n

Now that the Warriors beat Dallas, it\u2019s appropriate to appreciate how Golden State got to this moment. Curry, <\/span>Draymond Green<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Klay Thompson<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Kevon Looney<\/b><\/a>, and <\/span>Damion Lee<\/b><\/a> are the only players left from the 2019 Finals. Warriors GM Bob Myers and co. supplemented the core by swapping <\/span>D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/b><\/a> for <\/span>Andrew Wiggins<\/b><\/a> and the draft pick that became <\/span>Jonathan Kuminga<\/b><\/a>. <\/span>Jordan Poole<\/b><\/a> was the 28th pick in the 2019 draft and has become a key contributor. With Curry, Thompson, and Green all over 30, the team needed to find younger contributors to extend their run, and the front office succeeded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors beat Dallas because of their defense. They were able to effectively guard Don\u010di\u0107 while limiting open threes by Dallas\u2019 shooters. Golden State primarily used a show-and-recover screen in the pick-and-roll. Curry started guarding <\/span>Reggie Bullock<\/b><\/a>, who would set a screen on Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s man, usually Wiggins, then flare to the three-point line. Curry slid to meet Don\u010di\u0107 and allowed Wiggins to recover to Don\u010di\u0107 before scrambling to his original cover. When Bullock roasted the Warriors with open threes in Game 2, Curry guarded <\/span>Dorian Finney-Smith<\/b><\/a> the rest of the series. Finney-Smith is less adept at shooting threes on the move, and couldn\u2019t make the Warriors pay for the hedge-and-recover scheme. The Warriors\u2019 1-2-2 zone provided a change of pace and gave Luka another scheme to solve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offensively, the Warriors counted on Curry and balanced contributions to overcome Dallas. Curry earned his MVP by averaging nearly 24 points per game and increased his three-point percentage to just under 44%. Curry actually decreased his turnovers as well, from 3.2 a game in the regular season to 2.6 in this series. Wiggins deserves special recognition for recognizing his mismatch with Don\u010di\u0107 guarding him and repeatedly attacking throughout the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Series takeaways for the Mavericks<\/b><\/h3>\n

The way the Warriors beat Dallas makes it clear there was a talent gap between the two teams. This season, the Warriors won 53 games despite Curry, Thompson, and Green playing one full game together. With Golden State missing only <\/span>Gary Payton II<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>Andre Iguodala<\/b><\/a>, Dallas could not keep up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are plenty of positives for Dallas to take away from the series, though. Don\u010di\u0107 continues to show his offensive peers are league legends, not modern players. The Warriors had to go to the show-and-recover scheme detailed above to defend him, which they previously used in playoff series against <\/span>LeBron James<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>James Harden<\/b><\/a>. Don\u010di\u0107 managed to average 32 points per game against the Warriors, but converted just 41.5% of his shots and handed out 2.7 fewer assists per game than in the regular season. Still, Don\u010di\u0107 has only lost in the playoffs to a Clippers team with <\/span>Kawhi Leonard<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Paul George<\/b><\/a>, and <\/span>Patrick Beverley<\/b><\/a>, and the three-time NBA champion Warriors. He might already be the best postseason offensive player in the NBA. <\/span>Jalen Brunson<\/b><\/a> was effective and earned the respect of drawing Green as his primary defender.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the ball was out of Don\u010di\u0107 and Brunson\u2019s hands, though, the Mavericks proved easy to defend. <\/span>Spencer Dinwiddie<\/b><\/a> was inconsistent, and the other Mavs needed to be set up to score consistently. The Warriors\u2019 offense had the Mavericks muddled on defense. They lacked a defender to guard Curry one-on-one, and Golden State found ways to leverage Dallas\u2019 help into layups and dunks. Dallas played without a center most of this series, and features point guards who are either 6\u20198\u201d (Don\u010di\u0107) or blessed with burly strength (Brunson). It makes sense for Dallas to spend the next regular season practicing a switch-everything scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next steps for the Warriors<\/b><\/h3>\n

Golden State now waits for Boston or Miami to emerge as their next opponent. Either team would be the toughest test the Warriors have faced in the postseason, with respect to the Mavericks. The game plan the Warriors beat Dallas with will have to change. Both teams are defined by the presence of All-Star caliber wings who play both ends of the court, and Golden State hasn\u2019t faced any players like <\/span>Jimmy Butler<\/b><\/a> or <\/span>Jayson Tatum<\/b><\/a> during this postseason run.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Celtics and the Heat are capable of shutting down the Warriors\u2019 offense as defense-first squads. Both teams feature switch-heavy approaches, intelligent personnel, and multiple options to guard Curry and Poole. Miami is forcing the <\/span>third-most turnovers<\/span><\/a> this postseason at 15.5 a game, and giveaways are the Warriors\u2019 Achilles heel. Boston\u2019s overall positional size makes them a very challenging matchup. They <\/span>held<\/span><\/a> the Warriors to 25 points with 4:30 left in the second quarter of their March 16th matchup before Curry exited the game with the foot injury that kept him out until the playoffs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the Warriors won\u2019t be able to score as easily in the Finals no matter the opponent, their defense will be incredibly important. Green has seen his impact wax and wane, but he will need to play to his Defensive Player of the Year apex for the Warriors to have a chance. Wiggins will need to hold up as the primary defender on Tatum or Butler. Expect to see more of the 1-2-2 zone. Rebounding will be key for Golden State as well; they\u2019ve only been out-rebounded three times in the previous two rounds. Cleaning the glass is how the Warriors beat Dallas, and it\u2019s how they could win the Finals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next steps for the Mavericks<\/b><\/h3>\n

The future became the present for the Mavericks even before the Warriors beat Dallas. They have a generational superstar in Don\u010di\u0107, and the organization has built a perennial playoff team around him. However, this series shows Dallas isn\u2019t a true championship contender just yet. New GM Nico Harrison begins year two of the job, and the trade sending out <\/span>Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/b><\/a> for Dinwiddie<\/span> and <\/span>D\u0101vis Bert\u0101ns<\/b><\/a> figures to only be step one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A quick look at Dallas\u2019 <\/span>Spotrac page<\/span><\/a> shows a tight financial situation. Dallas will be in the luxury tax next season assuming <\/span>Maxi Kleber<\/b><\/a>\u2019s contract is guaranteed for 2022-2023. He\u2019s a vital part of their five-out lineup, so Kleber is likely returning. That tax estimate does not include resigning Brunson, their second-best player this year and only reliable source of offense aside from Don\u010di\u0107. Brunson will likely be targeted by point guard-needy teams like the Knicks and Pistons. If Dallas doesn\u2019t keep Brunson, they\u2019ll have a huge hole in their roster with no real means to replace him financially. If Dallas keeps Brunson, they\u2019ll have limited ways to improve their roster for the foreseeable future. The Mavericks might need to trade players in the future to reduce their luxury tax payments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dallas can use the taxpayer mid-level exception (estimated at ~$6.3 million) for roster upgrades, and they have a trade exception for under $11 million after dealing <\/span>Josh Richardson<\/b><\/a> to Boston last offseason. Using just one of those tools gives Dallas a towering luxury tax bill for next season. However, not improving the team could leave Don\u010di\u0107 as the next superstar with wandering eyes, looking for his next location.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golden State Warriors beat Dallas in just five games and will return to the NBA Finals. The final series in the Western side of the playoff bracket was slightly anti-climactic, but the participants are certainly worth celebrating. Both teams should take great pride in their performances. The Mavericks had to overcome Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s calf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":47425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,30,25],"tags":[4483,409,1909,70,1133,48],"class_list":["post-47423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-mavericks","category-warriors","tag-2022-nba-playoffs","tag-draymond-green","tag-jordan-poole","tag-klay-thompson","tag-luka-doncic","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Kunning Chen, Department Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}