Preview: Warriors continue road show at Luka’s Mavericks

Nov 29, 2022 - 7:55 AM

Golden State Warriors - Game Five" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZmFffIU0X9XFuXRElWZ_oAU5mSY=/0x200:4706x2847/1920x1080/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71685787/1399497530.0.jpg" />

What the heck did the Golden State Warriors do the Dallas Mavericks? It was just last spring that Luka Doncic became the latest elite star to absorb the clout from a Chris Paul playoff collapse, leading his squad to the Western Conference Finals.

Can you believe five out of nineteen ESPN pundits picked the Mavs to stop the Warriors that series? The disrespect. Five games later, Doncic’s Mavs were broken and eliminated by the Dubs.

Five months later, and the Mavericks have a losing record of 9-10, a daunting 4.5 games back from the #1 seed in the Western Conference?? Egads, how the mighty have fallen. Meanwhile, the world champion Warriors are a robust 11-10, a mere 3.5 games back from the top of the West.

Meh, maybe that’s not that big of a difference. But we’re all about positive momentum in the Bay, and the Dubs haven’t had much of it on the road so far. THEY’RE 2-9 AWAY FROM CHASE!

Golden State Warriors at Dallas Mavericks

November 29th, 2022 | 4:30 PT

Watch: TNT | Listen: 95.7 The Game

For those who haven’t seen the Mavericks play since the Warriors banished them to the shadow realm, they’ve lost four straight games. They have a 1-7 record on the road (!) and have their fans in shambles on social media.

This is surprising considering some had the Mavericks favored over the Warriors in the WCF. And not only that, the team added key big man Christian Wood to the team. Here’s how our buddy blog Mavs Money Ball spoke about Wood after the acquisition over the summer:

Let’s start with the fun stuff first — Wood should be a sublime offensive fit next to Luka Doncic. Wood represents one of the more talented offensive players Doncic has played next to in the NBA, especially for a big. While the Mavericks tried to make Kristaps Porzingis work, Wood has more consistent offensive skills that should translate better.

But recently that same blog had these harrowing words about Wood’s addition in an article entitled, “The Mavericks need to move on from pairing a stretch big with Luka Doncic: Christian Wood is not the second fiddle that Doncic needs.”:

The Mavericks have committed to the same team formula for all but the spring of 2022 since Luka Doncic finished his rookie season: pair Doncic with a stretch big and wing shooters. On paper, this formula is a basketball dream. A ball-dominant guard, who is excellent in the pick-and-roll, benefiting from the space a big with range creates, while the big benefits from the playmaking and passing ability from the guard is basketball poetry. Theoretically, this sort of yin-yang relationship should be ideal for players of these archetypes. Realistically, as we have seen, the pairing is not a perfect marriage, and it’s time to try something different.

Maybe they should do what the Warriors did when their stretch big was having trouble making his imprint on the team; give him some extended confidence-improving runs in the G-League!

Sans that, you have to wonder if Luka Doncic is another heliocentric star trapped in that tormentingly hopeless place in between “playoff team” and “Golden State’s boot”. James Harden, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and even the mighty LeBron James can tell you about that agony.

Then again, Stephen Curry did train with Luka and that means the Mavs’ star guard is FAR MORE THAN CAPABLE of dominating at any moment, as I learned from Steph’s trainer Brandon Payne when I was reporting with Lets Go Warriors: