The Mavericks took care of business tonight in what was probably their most impressive win and offensive performance without Anthony Davis this season, beating the Golden State Warriors 123-115 in Dallas.
The Mavericks won behind an absurd performance from Naji Marshall, who scored 3o points on 10-for-12 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and nine assists. Cooper Flagg also had another impressive night with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double. It was a full-team effort, with six players finishing in double digits. The Warriors tried to keep up behind another all-world performance from Steph Curry, who finished with 38 points on eight made threes and 14-for-27 overall from the field. Without Jimmy Butler, Curry’s supporting cast did very little to help. DeAnthony Melton had 21, but no other player had more than 12 on Golden State.
Let’s get to the numbers.
+22: Mavericks’ rebounding differential.
The rebounding gap told the entire story of this game. Dallas finished with 65 total rebounds to Golden State’s 44, including 11 offensive boards that turned into 24 second-chance points, while the Warriors managed just four offensive rebounds and five second-chance points. That difference showed up all night in the play-by-play: every Curry jumper that missed became a Mavericks reset, and every Dallas miss was followed by a put-back, a kick-out three, or another possession entirely. It’s why Golden State could never turn its shooting runs into real momentum, and why Dallas kept scoring even when shots didn’t fall.
This wasn’t just winning the glass; it was owning the game’s economy, creating nearly five times as many second-chance points, and suffocating Golden State’s ability to play on even ground.
56: Mavericks paint points
Dallas didn’t just beat Golden State with shooting, they bludgeoned them at the rim, piling up 56 points in the paint as the Warriors’ point-of-attack defense completely collapsed, especially in the fourth quarter. Naji Marshall and Brandon Williams walked into the lane possession after possession, finishing through contact or drawing fouls while Golden State’s help defense arrived late or not at all. Even with 21 Dallas turnovers, it barely mattered because the Warriors couldn’t stop anything once the Mavericks got downhill, allowing drives, cuts, and dump-offs to turn into automatic points.
When a team gives up that kind of interior access late in a close game, no amount of ball pressure or perimeter shooting can save them, and that’s how Dallas turned a tight contest into a controlled finish.
-24: Caleb Martin’s plus/,inus
Caleb Martin finished -24 in just 19 minutes in his fourth start of the season, a hilarious number in a game the Mavericks otherwise controlled from start to finish. Even as Dallas dominated the paint, the glass, and the possession battle, the lineups featuring Martin were the rare stretches where Golden State was able to breathe, generating quick scores before the Mavericks could reset. It wasn’t about one blown coverage or missed shot, but how his minutes coincided with the Warriors’ only real offensive pockets, when Dallas’ spacing tightened and stops didn’t turn into transition. In a night defined by control and physicality from the Mavericks, Martin’s plus-minus stood out as the lone statistical red flag.
21: Cooper Flagg points
Cooper Flagg quietly put together one of his more complete offensive nights, finishing with 21 points while looking far more under control than he has in recent games. Instead of forcing his way into traffic, Flagg picked his spots, attacking the rim when lanes were there and sliding into open space off the ball for easy finishes when the defense collapsed. Flagg also showed off his versatility, scoring on cuts, straight-line drives, and quick finishes, rather than the rushed pull-ups that have stalled his efficiency at times this season.
In a game where Dallas was winning through pace and interior pressure, Flagg fit seamlessly into that rhythm, playing within the flow and turning good spacing into efficient production.
