3 takeaways from Warriors’ Christmas Day win over Cooper Flagg, Mavericks

ByNBAUSA



SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Like Santa Claus delivering gifts to everyone in the world, Golden State Warriors did their job and took care of business in their Christmas showdown with the Dallas Mavericks, claiming their third straight win 126-116.

Led by Stephen Curry and his 23 points, the Warriors outscored the Mavs by committee. De’Anthony Melton scored 16 points off the bench, Jimmy Butler he walked to the static line on 9/14/9, and Al Horford is back from a sciatic nerve issue to score 14 points on 4-0f-5 from deep.

And while the Warriors’ 3-point struggles continued, shooting 14-of-50 from deep (28.0%), they went 30-for-49 (61.2%) from the inside arc, dishing out a season-high 33 assists in the process.

The Dubs’ all-around scoring was enough to withstand a strong 27-point night from rookie Cooper Flagg, as the Mavs never got close enough to make Golden State sweat. The The Mavs lost Anthony Davis to a groin injury in the middle of the game and couldn’t replicate his defense or production in the aggregate.

The win on Christmas Day capped off a strange week for the Dubs. Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ 16th win of the season.

The rotation is starting to solidify

After thirty games of tinkering with the starting lineup and rotation, it seems Steve Kerrit starts narrowing everyone’s minutes down to something more specific and consistent.

The Warriors went 11 deep, and Al Horford rejoined the group. The combinations made sense, as Kerr often says.

When Curry was off the floor, Butler ran the show with players like Horford, Brandin Podziemski and Will Richard, guys who make sense with him. When Butler rested, they ran a classic Curry offense with Green, Gary Payton II and Moses Moody using his gravity.

They’ve found good bursts with Trace Jackson-Davis, who has become much more accomplished as an energy guy this season, and they’ve got Melton closer to where he was last season in his 24 minutes. It seemed like with the rotation pattern mapped out and specific minutes on the basketball court, there was clarity. This is something Curry himself has noticed.

“Yeah, we asked for it,” Curry said when asked about it the rotation stabilizes. “Looking for that, also understanding that it’s been difficult because of injuries, because of the revolving door of who’s available, who’s playing well, certain things that the coach sees to make or inform his decision.”

“So it helps when guys know who they’re playing with and can develop chemistry and rhythm, especially offensively. Because it changes depending on who you’re out there with. The hardest part is you’ve got Buddy (Hilde), Jay-Kay (Cumming), Guy (Santos) Pete (Spencer). Seth (Santos) Pat (Spencer). Seth (Curry) is ready to play, who’s also ready. too, because things can change.”

The shots have to start falling eventually…right?

While the Warriors scored 126 points, they shot a measly 28% from beyond the arc. In fact, they took 50 3-pointers, only burying 14 of them. Everyone but Horford was throwing bricks at the rim, including Curry who finished just 2 of 10 from deep. And while they made timely ones, they also missed a ton of open ones – which has been a trend lately.

This season, the Warriors rank 23rd in the league in 3-point percentage where the nearest defender is four to six feet away at 32.2%. Those threes make up 26.9% of their shooting diet, meaning they leave a lot of meat on the bones in that part of their offense.

Most of those shots are generated whenever Curry or Butler draw two on the ball and the rock swings toward the open man. And the open man is usually someone like Horford, Melton, Moody and Quinten Post, and as stated earlier, only Horford punished the Mavs defense when he got the shot.

Still, the play inside the arc is encouraging despite the 3-point issues. The Warriors are shooting 62.5% on two-pointers during their three-game winning streak, which is the second-most in the league among teams over their last three games. They get points both in the half court and on the break, which makes up for missed threes.

The glass half full perspective is that the 3-point numbers will start to even out to go with the strong two-point numbers. But the glass-half-empty view is that this is their identity – an offense that thrives inside the arc, not outside of it.

The Warriors have had a tumultuous week

With The Draymond Green-Steve Kerr incident rocking the boat earlier this week, the fact that the Dubs have strung together three straight wins against quality teams seems like a sign that they will be able to move past that.

“I think (those) two are in a better place,” Curry said after the game. “Things like that happen. They have the fairness of years and years of a relationship that has had its moments, but being the professional that you are, you go back and approach the next day all over again.”

Green and Kerr got into a heated altercation in the huddle during the Warriors’ 120-97 win over the Orlando Magic, which led to Green being removed from the bench. Green later returned to the bench, but Kerr did not return him to the game.

It was an incident that had the potential to turn into something worse for a team already struggling to find a rhythm while hovering around .500 a quarter of the way through the season. But they found themselves in front of it, Green and Kerr talked about itand perhaps most importantly, they won the next game. Winning is usually the antidote to a team’s frustrations.

For Butler, he loves moments like that. They are the sign of a competitive team that cares.

“When you’ve been together that long, you’re all going to argue,” Butler said after the game. “It’s not going to be quiet all the time. That’s OK. You’ve got two fierce competitors that have won together and want to keep winning. We know what it is. And you know, if you’re watching me, I’m just looking up like, OK, I expect that to happen. It’s eye-opening.”





2025-12-26 04:21:00

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