The Dallas Mavericks will face the second night of a back-to-back as they enter Oracle Arena to take on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
The Mavericks (2-5) are coming off a well-earned 109-97 win over the streaking Lakers, who previous to that contest, were undefeated at home. Harrison Barnes notched his third 30-point game of the season and second in a row. Barnes finished with 31 points on 11-of-18 shooting, along with two rebounds and two assists, in 40 minutes. Barnes has been playing big minutes in Dallas and will have his work cut out for him as he goes up against his old pals in Golden State. The Mavs are struggling to begin the season but are finding that they have a lot to build around with Barnes and even rookie Dorian Finney-Smtih, who has stepped up in the absence of Devin Harris, Dirk Nowitski and Deron Williams, all of whom will not be active versus the Warriors, save for Harris, who is questionable
The Warriors (5-2) have not had the perfect start that some may have expected, but are still a major force to be reckoned with. They shook off their loss versus the Lakers last Friday with a win at home against the Pelicans on Monday. Stephen Curry set a new NBA record for three-pointers made in a game, in Monday’s contest as he drained 13 of them on his way to 46 points, to drown out the Pelicans. Kevin Durant leads the team in scoring, averaging 28.9 points per game, while Klay Thompson has notably been struggling. However, the Warriors line up can be unpredictable, so that when one play is off, the next is on. Still, they need to tighten the screws on defense, where they allow 109.4 points per game.
