Mavericks Fall to Golden State 111-103

Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors Stole a Victory From Dallas at the AAC Tuesday (Nov 24) night.(AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

Dallas Loses to Warriors' Team That Uses Only Six Players

The Dallas Mavericks (10-4) can't blame their injury woes for this loss as the Golden State Warriors (5-8) suited up only eight players and used only six.
Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 28 points and 10 rebounds (his 7th double-double of the season) and Jason Terry dropped 21, but it wasn't enough as a porous Mavericks' defense allowed the Warriors to shoot nearly 48 percent from the floor and score 111 points.
"There were too many breakdowns, mental and physical. It was as simple as that," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said after Golden State shot 65 percent (11 for 17) in the fourth quarter.

Golden State used a 24-7 run to end the game after Dallas had pulled ahead 98-89 mid-fourth quarter. Monta Ellis led the Warriors with 37 points while dishing out eight assists, but did account for 11 of Golden State’s 21 turnovers. Ellis consistently beat the Mavericks’ perimeter defenders and was able to finish around the basket at will against their post defenders; he shot 51.7 percent for the game. Golden State had a total of 54 points in the paint compared to the Mavericks 36.

"There are bad losses and this was one of them," Nowitzki said. "We were up nine but we couldn't get anything going. We were a step slow defensively. (Ellis) got to the basket when he wanted to."

Drew Gooden had his fourth double-double in five starts since taking over for Erick Dampier. Gooden finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Jason Kidd had a double-double at the end of the third quarter (assists-rebounds) and finished with five points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists. Kidd had trouble all night defensively with Ellis and Dallas also tried sticking Rodrigue Beaubois and Jason Terry on Ellis, but nothing seemed to work.

"Monta took over the game," Warriors rookie Stephen Curry said. "He kept going to the basket and kept us in it."

The Dallas Mavericks allowed themselves to be sucked into a sloppy, undisciplined game against the Golden State Warriors, and it came back to bite them. In fairness to the Warriors, they also beat the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night 108-94 using only eight players.

Dallas has no time to hang their heads after this one as they travel to Houston, Wednesday, to take on the Rockets. The good news for Dallas is Shawn Marion is expected to play after missing the last three games due to a sprained ankle. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. locally on KTXA channel 21.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)