Tim Hardaway Jr. shot the ball with confidence against the Warriors

Nov 30, 2022 - 6:00 PM

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A four-game losing streak was snapped as the Dallas Mavericks topped the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. In the win, a key weapon showed signs of busting out of an early-season funk as Tim Hardaway Jr had his best game of the season when the Mavericks needed it most.

Having a shooter-to-shooter off-day conversation during an off-day workout with head coach Jason Kidd paid dividends. “Just having a little more confidence. Releasing at the top. Mechanics were fine. Just making sure I’m releasing at the top of my jump shot and not on the way down”, Hardaway Jr. explained.

Early in the first quarter, Hardaway Jr. uses a nice escape dribble to evade Curry’s closeout, hit the shot, and draw the foul.

Despite a good close-out from Draymond Green, Hardaway Jr. hits another contested shot with the replay easily showing the nice release at the height of the jumper.

Here a nice pindown from Dwight Powell springs Hardaway Jr. open after he calls for the ball from Finney-Smith. Very nice ball movement here from the Mavericks.

Confidence in the jumper quickly spread to the rest of his game. Check out this fantastic drive to the basket on another Draymond Green closeout.

Off a dynamite pass from Luka Doncic, Hardaway Jr. drives on Donte Divincenzo for a turnaround jumper in the post. This is the sort of secondary shot creation the Mavericks have been missing.

Steve Kerr said in his post-game interview that this shot from Hardaway Jr. was the difference in the outcome of the game. A beautifully slipped pick that had Andrew Wiggins late to close-out put the Mavericks up 111-110 with just under two minutes to go.

The Mavericks are a far more complete team when Tim Hardway Jr. plays with this brand of confidence. Time will tell if tonight’s win over the Warriors is an aberration or the start of a shooter’s renaissance. If it is the latter, the Mavs’ season just got much brighter.