Mavs nip Warriors, 108-106, on Washington’s late basket

With Luka Dončić lounging on the bench in road garments, one other member of the Dallas Mavericks needed to step up and play above their requirements if they’d designs on defeating the Golden State Warriors.

That somebody was P.J. Washington.

With 4.5 seconds remaining in Friday’s sport, Washington broke a tie and scored the game-winning basket after he took a move contained in the paint from a hard-charging Tim Hardaway Jr. The pulsating 108-106 victory at American Airways Heart was the Mavs’ 13^th win of their final 15 video games and elevated their file to 47-30 heading into Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. contest at house in opposition to the Houston Rockets.

In breaking down his game-winning basket, Washington mentioned: “I noticed Draymond (Inexperienced) had his head in direction of Tim, and Tim was driving,” Washington mentioned. “I assumed he was going to shoot it, so I simply tried to go in and get a rebound, and he handed it to me and I simply tried to make a play and win the sport.”

The Warriors referred to as timeout after Washington’s essential basket and tried to set one thing up for Stephen Curry, who was throwing one haymaker after one other and maintaining Golden State in a sport the Mavs led, 98-88, with 5:58 left. Nonetheless, the Mavs compelled the ball out of Curry’s fingers and into the fingers of Klay Thompson, who missed a large open three-pointer from the nook as time expired.

Thompson’s miss was an enormous sigh of reduction for the Mavs generally and Washington particularly. That’s as a result of again on Feb. 27, Washington scored what he thought was the game-winning dunk in Cleveland with 2.9 seconds left, solely to see Max Strus drill an inconceivable 59-footer on the buzzer to raise the Cavaliers to a surprising 121-119 overcome the Mavs.

“About 5 folks got here as much as me and all they had been speaking to me about was Cleveland,” a smiling Washington mentioned. “I’m simply glad we bought a win tonight and closed this one out.”

The win got here whereas Dončić sat out the sport with proper knee soreness. The fifth-seeded Mavs, who nonetheless path the No. 4-seeded Los Angeles Clippers within the Western Convention by two video games, at the moment are 4-6 in video games Dončić didn’t play this season.

Washington actually did his half in filling the void left by Dončić as he completed with 32 factors, 5 rebounds, 5 steals and two blocks. In stuffing the stat sheet, Washington additionally was a really environment friendly 12-of-18 from the ground, together with 5-of-8 from downtown.

“P.J. was nice for us,” coach Jason Kidd mentioned. “He stepped up offensively and on the defensively finish. We wanted somebody to not be Luka, however have the ability to give us some factors, and I assumed he did a terrific job of simply rhythm catch-and-shoot or placing the ball on the ground.

“After which we performed small, so his capacity to roll-and-catch and end was huge tonight for us.”

Behind 11 factors from Washington – together with three consecutive three-pointers – the Mavs broke out to a 29-13 lead with 4:13 staying on the primary quarter and appeared as if they had been about to run the Warriors clear out of AAC. However the Warriors, undaunted, went on such a livid run that they led, 32-31, after the primary quarter following a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Chris Paul.

From there, the sport was principally nip-and-tuck with the Warriors main on the half (54-52) and the Mavs main after the third quarter (79-76). And with Dončić not enjoying, Kyrie Irving did a lot of the ball-handling duties and wound up scoring 26 factors and distributing seven assists in 42 minutes.

“Kai has been off the charts,” Kidd mentioned. “He’s one among our leaders. On and off the ground he’s been unimaginable. He’s delivered within the clutch.

“He’s performed off the ball, he’s performed on the ball, he’s competing on the defensive finish. And in order a frontrunner that’s what you want is examples, and that’s what he’s doing for us proper now.”

Along with Dončić, the Mavs additionally performed with out Josh Inexperienced (proper ankle sprain), Dereck Energetic II (proper knee sprain) and Maxi Kleber (again spasms). However with everybody seemingly tied to a string, the Mavs displayed sufficient resiliency to actual revenge on the Warriors after they misplaced in San Francisco, 104-100, this previous Tuesday.

It was a sport the place middle Daniel Gafford was a proverbial workhorse in holding down the center for the Mavs. He completed with 10 factors, 15 rebounds, a career-high tying 5 assists and three blocks.

Lower than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Washington skied excessive and blocked a high-arching move from Inexperienced, which began a quick break that ended with Irving lobbing an ideal move to Gafford for a dunk and an 84-76 lead.

Total, Gafford was mired in a bodily tussle all night time with Trayce Jackson-Davis, Kevon Looney and Inexperienced.

“It was a little bit of a battle immediately, however I anticipated that simply from the fellows that we had been enjoying,” Gafford mentioned. “It’s all good.”

It’s additionally all good, from Gafford’s perspective, that the Mavs may win a sport of this magnitude with out Dončić.

“It simply exhibits that we have now a variety of depth,’ Gafford mentioned. “We bought a variety of guys harm, however on the finish of the day guys are taking that step up and simply got here out and simply performed.

“It doesn’t matter what the state of affairs is or what adversity that we had been going through, we discovered methods to get by that. There are frustrations, there are impediment, however we bought over that as a unit.”

The Mavs bought over that as a unit as a result of they created 30 assists on their 40 made baskets, and so they additionally shot 47.6 % from the sphere. As well as, the Mavs by no means trailed the Warriors by not more than 4 factors, which means they had been at all times within the ballgame.

Curry led the Warriors with 28 factors, six rebounds and 5 assists, Thompson tallied 16 factors, and Gary Payton II and Brandin Podziemski scored 14 factors apiece. However this sport belonged to Washington, who was in assault mode all night time and whereas showcasing his offensive and defensive capabilities.

“Clearly, I haven’t actually been making pictures as of late, so for me simply to see them go in is a superb confidence booster,” Washington mentioned. “Credit score to all my coaches being in there with me every single day and getting the work in. I’m simply excited that we bought a W tonight.

“I attempted to select and selected my spots and simply tried to assault early and sometimes and put strain on them. It feels good. I can’t wait to go house and get some relaxation.”

X: @DwainPrice