Mavs Take On the Defending Champs

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In order to avoid falling under .500 this late into the season since the 2012-2013 campaign, the Mavericks (34-34) are going to have to take down the mighty Golden State Warriors (61-6) Friday night at the American Airlines Center.

 

The Mavs were able to snap their season long five game losing streak on the front end of their two game road trip in Charlotte on Monday, but were victim of another heartbreaking loss when they fell to the LeBron-less Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night.  

 

The Warriors have won six straight and are well on their way to equaling, if not passing, the historic 72-10 record by the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls for the best regular season record in NBA history.  Friday night’s trip to Dallas might be what some call a “trap game” as Golden State will be squaring off with the Spurs tomorrow night in San Antonio.  It will be only the second meeting of the season between the two teams representing the top of the Western Conference.

 

Dallas has split the season series with Golden State so far.  They destroyed the Warriors on December 30th in Dallas 114-91 as reigning MVP Steph Curry had the night off.  In late January, the Mavs traveled to Oakland and had the same demoralizing defeat that virtually every team in the NBA has faced this season at Oracle Arena.  Golden State and San Antonio are both undefeated at home this season with winning streaks dating back to last season as well.  The 127-107 loss on January 27th was on a night where the Mavs rested Dirk Nowitzki and Devin Harris was in the middle of an extended absence.  One would think both will play heavy minutes in tonight’s matchup.

 

Key to the Game: Can the Mavs Defense Step Up? Usually the key to the game focuses on one player or a particular matchup, but against this Warriors team it will be an all-around assault if the Mavericks don’t bring their A game defensively.  It will be interesting to see if Coach Rick Carlisle will continue his recent trend of playing rookie Justin Anderson more than his typical garbage time minutes.  He size and athleticism could be beneficial in a perimeter defense effort against guards like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.

 

In the frontcourt, Chandler Parsons should spend a lot of time defending Draymond Green and that could be a major key to potential success of failure.  Expect this to be another game where Zaza Pachulia plays little-to-no minutes because of the relative lack of size the Warriors play with at most times.

 

Game Info: Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 CT and the game can be seen on FSSW and heard on 103.3 KESN.