Warriors stun Mavs in Game 1

Stephen Jackson scored 23 points for the Warriors, who continued their recent dominance of the NBA’s best team. Golden State, under the tutelage of Dallas’ former coach Don Nelson, swept the Mavs, 3-0, in the regular season, the only team in the NBA to do so.

"It’s just one game, and it looks like it’ll be a long series," cautioned Nelson.

Jason Richardson added 13 points for the Warriors.

Josh Howard finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, but only shot 8-of-21 for the Mavs, who shot an uncharacteristic 35.3 percent from the field. Dirk Nowitzki struggled considerably, missing 12-of-16, including both of his three-point attempts in the loss. Nowitzki finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and Devin Harris scored 19 for the top-seeded Mavs.

"We were just lucky," said Nelson of Nowitzki’s struggles. "He had a bad shooting night, their whole team was just off tonight."

Dallas ran with a smaller lineup for most of the game, with Erick Dampier logging only 2:21 as the Mavs tried to keep up with Golden State’s run-and-gun offensive attack.

A Nowitzki free throw pulled the Mavs to within 80-78 at the 7:10 mark, but the Warriors answered with a 17-7 run to seal the upset. Harris hit a layup midway through the run, and then stole the ball from Richardson on the next possession and cruised in for another layup. Richardson came swooping in and rejected the shot, though, and Matt Barnes drilled a three on the next possession, a five-point swing that put the Warriors up 92-81.

"I’m very surprised. I thought overall as a team we were ready to go... but the shots didn’t fall," said Mavs head coach Avery Johnson.

The Warriors closed the third quarter on a 17-6 run to take momentum into the final 12 minutes. Davis, who scored 19 points in the third, hit three treys on the run, including back-to-back threes to end the quarter. Davis canned his last three with 1.8 ticks on the clock, giving Golden State a 72-66 lead.

Golden State took the lead with a 12-3 run late in the first quarter. Jackson closed the stretch with a layup, putting the Warriors up 22-16 with 1:52 left. Golden State took a 23-17 lead into the second quarter.

The high-powered Warriors offense could only muster 15 points in the second quarter, but Dallas was almost as cold. The final three minutes of the half were marred by offensive futility. Howard’s dunk to tie the game at 38 with 2:49 left provided the last points of the half, as the Mavs missed their last 10 shots, while Golden State missed its last three and committed three turnovers.

Game Notes

Dallas fell to 2-9 in their last 11 Game One’s...Counting the regular season, the Warriors have now won six straight over the Mavericks...Dallas is the top seed in the West for the first time in franchise history...The Mavs, who lost the last four games of last season’s NBA Finals, have lost five straight postseason games...Jerry Stackhouse scored zero points in 20:27 off the bench, missing all six shots he attempted for Dallas.