Doncic Tops Curry In Duel As Mavericks Beat Warriors 134-132
DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic tied his career high with 42 points in a scoring duel with Stephen Curry, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 134-132 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
The prime-time matchup on national TV lived up to the billing, with Curry hitting a season-high 11 3-pointers on the way to 57 points. It was the second-highest total of the Golden State star's career, behind the 62 points he scored in early January in a win over Portland.
Doncic was 12 of 23 from field, 7 for 12 from 3-point range and 11 of 14 on free throws with 11 assists and seven rebounds as the Mavericks ended a six-game home losing streak, the second-longest in Rick Carlisle's 13 seasons as coach.
The Mavericks took an 18-2 lead two nights after a 31-point loss to the Warriors on the same court, but the 16-point cushion was gone by the third quarter — not long after Curry's shoulder shimmy when he drained a 36-footer from the Mavericks midcourt logo.
Curry was 11 of 19 from 3 and made all eight of his free throws. Draymond Green matched his season high of 15 assists from the first of the two straight games with the Warriors missing all their traditional centers because of injuries.
Curry got the Warriors within a point with a three-point play with 28 seconds remaining, but Doncic assisted on a 3-pointer by Maxi Kleber for a 134-130 lead with 5.6 seconds left.
With Curry sitting early in the fourth quarter, the Mavericks got their lead back to double digits. The Warriors were within four when Curry missed a 3 with a little more than a minute remaining, then Doncic connected from long range to tie his previous career high of 42 points and put Dallas up 131-124.
Kristaps Porzingis had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Josh Richardson scored 17 for Dallas.
Andrew Wiggins scored 22 points and Kent Bazemore had 20 for the Warriors.
The duel between Curry and Doncic got going when they traded 3-pointers late in the first half. They did it again early in the second half, when Doncic hit another one after a Golden State turnover.
It wasn't all 3s for Curry. He pump-faked behind the arc in the third quarter, sending Kleber and Dorian Finney-Smith flying by before dribbling past them and hitting a 17-footer.
Curry hit another 3 the next time down, and one from long range by Wiggins gave the Warriors their first lead at 96-95 with four minutes left in the third.
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