The Dallas Mavericks got their revenge against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, with a 143-133 win. The best player of the game for the Mavs was Luka Doncic, who scored 45 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished 13 assists. His performance helped his teammate, Klay Thompson, to avenge himself from his first game against the Warriors during the 2024-25 NBA season.
The Mavs met the Warriors on Nov. 12, Tuesday at the start of the Emirates NBA Cup. Golden State outplayed the Dallas team behind Stephen Curry’s 37-point performance, leading them to a 120-117 victory. In their most recent game, however, Thompson got the final laugh.
The four-time champion had 29 points on 63.6% shooting from deep. After the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spoke highly of what Doncic did to his team.
“The issue was Luka Doncic,” Kerr said. “I think they made their first nine shots, and the key element was they made three more assists. So, he was incredible. Give him credit, give Dallas credit. They’ve got a hell of a team that made the finals last year. They spread you out there that’s difficult to guard as anybody. We tried a lot of different things, but we’re proud of our guys, they continue to fight night and night out. We’ve lost eight out of 10 and there’s zero quit. There’s some disappointment but there’s zero quit and we’re gonna climb out of this because of the character and the competitiveness of our guys.”
“The issue was Luka Doncic.”
Steve Kerr after being asked about one of their worst defensive games of the year pic.twitter.com/EJdp2s9RRy
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) December 16, 2024
The Mavs and Warriors will have two more games in their regular-season series. However, Curry and his company will have time to plan for their third meeting, on Feb. 12. Their fourth and final game facing each other will be on Feb. 23.
Fewer buildup helped Klay Thompson perform better against his former team for a second time
Unlike Klay Thompson’s first game against the Warriors this season, there wasn’t much hype around it. When he first played against the team that drafted and developed him, there was much anticipation from longtime fans. The Golden State organization even arranged a special tribute for Thompson’s return.
However, his second game was different. Although Thompson wasn’t the main attraction, fans still came to show their love for the five-time All-Star. After the game, he said that the less attention on him felt more “normal.”
“No question,” Thompson said. “It still warms my heart to see all of the No. 11 jerseys. It still makes me incredibly grateful for the time I did have here. Legendary stuff. But now it’s time to do some legendary stuff in Dallas, and I truly believe in this team.”
In his first season with the Mavs, Klay Thompson is averaging 13.3 points and 3.5 rebounds.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
