Dallas Mavericks blown out by Warriors in ugly Game 1 loss, but it’s not time to panic

If anything was learned from the Dallas Mavericks’ second-round series against the Phoenix Suns, it’s to not draw any conclusions based off of a first game blowout loss on the road.

It means nothing.

So there is no reason for the Mavericks to panic after Wednesday’s 112-87 thrashing by the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

The Mavericks, who live and die by the 3-pointer, shot poorly and they defended worse.

This can be chalked up as simply one of those nights by a Dallas team that rallied from a 2-0 deficit on the road to come back and beat the Suns in a seven-game series.

Recent history is in the front of their mind so there no need to hang their heads. With the unfazed Luka Doncic leading the way, that’s not going to happen anyway.

But a word of caution: the Warriors are not the Suns.

They have championship pedigree with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green remaining from three title teams in 2015, 2017 and 2018. They also don’t have a history of choking in big moments or coughing up 2-0 series leads.

Curry led seven Warriors in double figures with 21 points. Andrew Wiggins, who had the primary job of guarding Doncic, had 19 and Jordan Poole added 19.

And they certainly learned from the Suns series on how to slow to defend the Mavs with their ability to extend their defense and switch out size to help contain Doncic, who was held to 20 points on 6-of-18 shooting after coming in as the leading scorer in the playoffs with 31.5 points per game.

And Doncic had more turnovers (7) than field goals made (6) for the first time in his 24-game playoff career.

What’s also true is the shots just weren’t falling for the Mavs, who had made more 3-pointers than any team in the playoffs coming into game

The shooting was ugly early and the often. The Mavs attempted a whopping 19 first-quarter 3-pointers, making just 3, fueling a 28-18 deficit.

It was a miracle that Dallas was able to cut it deficit to three points in the second quarter but it was 54-45 at halftime and Golden State simply ran away in the third quarter with a 10-2 opening spurt.

The Mavs were 7 of 32 from 3-point land when they down 73-54 with little more than five minutes to go in the third.

The benches would empty midway through the fourth quarter.

Spencer Dinwiddie was the only Mavericks player who had a solid game with 17 points.

Game 2 is Friday night at 8 p.m. at the Chase Center. The teams will resume the series with Game 3 in Dallas on Sunday with an 8 p.m. tip-off at American Airlines Center.