The Golden State Warriors return to their San Francisco house of horrors when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night in a matchup of teams locked in tight battles for postseason position.
The Warriors (40-34) have won four in a row as they attempt to fend off the charging Houston Rockets for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference while also trying to move up in the standings.
Those four wins all came on the road, where the Warriors have fashioned an impressive 22-15 record. They have won 14 of their past 17 games away from home.
Unfortunately for Golden State, it has not had that level of success at home, where the Warriors have lost five of their past seven and, at 18-19, need a win on Tuesday just to get back to the break-even mark.
“It’s bizarre,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “A year ago, it was the complete opposite. We were 33-8 at home and 0-41 on the road or so. So, who knows? It’s hard to explain these things.
“The main thing is we’re playing well right now. We’re in a pretty good groove. We’re coming along well.”
Golden State completed a 4-1 road trip with a 117-113 win at San Antonio on Sunday that featured a turn-back-the-clock performance by Draymond Green. In a matchup with the league’s top shot-blocker, Victor Wembanyama, Green made 8 of 9 shots from the floor en route to 21 points that he complemented with 11 assists, six rebounds, six steals and a block.
The Warriors hope Green can be a difference-maker against the Mavericks (45-29) after he missed this season’s previous meetings, two games Dallas won by 10 points apiece.
The most recent head-to-head was March 13, a contest Stephen Curry also missed as the Mavericks rode 23 points from Kyrie Irving and 21 from Luka Doncic to a 109-99 home win.
That victory came as part of a four-game winning streak that ended with a 126-119 loss at Oklahoma City the night after the Golden State game. Dallas has since run up seven straight wins, including four in a row to begin a five-game trip.
The Mavericks began their journey with a win at Utah on March 25, then followed that with a 132-96 shellacking of the Sacramento Kings in the California capital on the second night of a back-to-back.
The team then had two days off in Sacramento, leading to a 107-103 triumph that completed a doubleheader sweep, before heading to Texas to dispose of the Houston Rockets 125-107 on Sunday.
Now it’s back to California for one game before being Texas-bound again for a three-game homestand that tips off on Thursday and features a rematch with the Warriors on Friday.
The Mavericks have played 10 of their past 11 games in a different city than the previous outing. That will become 11 of 12 in San Francisco, then 12 of 13 on Thursday in Dallas.
The only time the Mavericks have played at the same site two games in a row during that stretch was in Sacramento.
“I miss home now,” Doncic said after a 47-point explosion in Houston. “It has been the longest road trip ever.”
–Field Level Media