The Golden State Warriors are taking on the Dallas Mavericks. The Golden State Warriors are coming off a loss to the Celtics to drop them to 11-10. The Dallas Mavericks have finally snapped their losing streak with a victory over the Atlanta Hawks to put them at 8-13.
The Warriors are coming off of a loss that saw Stephen Curry drop 38 points and still lose. The Warriors will need stronger contributions from the team if they want to win consistently. Against the Celtics the Warriors were without their star Rookie James Wiseman who is dealing with a wrist injury and will also miss this game against the Hawks. To make matters worse for the Warriors they'll be without Kevon Looney who sprained his ankle against the Celtics leaving the Warriors a shortage of big men as Draymond Green will have his hands full with additional responsibilities on the defensive end. Juan Toscano-Anderson is coming off of a strong performance against the Celtics and he'll have another great opportunity, Eric Paschall was a nonfactor against the Celtics but I don't expect Paschall to waste this opportunity.
The Dallas Mavericks have relied on Luka Doncic carrying this team to success as they have dealt with COVID and a setback injury to Porzingis that has prevented him from being the dominant force he once was. The Dallas Mavericks have the pieces on paper but they have just been dysfunctional causing them to lose six games in a row.
Both of these teams are extremely hard to trust as the only players who can be counted on in this game are Curry and Luka. Scoring shouldn't be an issue for either team, so I would watch for what the total will be posted at. This game will come down to how well the Warriors play defense with a small ball lineup as they lack a healthy center, Draymond Green will more than likely play as the 5 in this one. I'm siding with the Mavericks as despite their dysfunctions, their last two games were close and the Warriors are also an extremely faulty team with extremely inconsistent play from the supporting cast, so I feel more comfortable taking the free points in this one.
