The teams, 2007 playoff combatants, currently reside at the opposite end of the spectrum in the Western Conference standings, with Dallas (10-23) owning a mark tied for the worst record in the West this season, while Golden State (28-5) is at the top.
That disparity was well represented in the clubs’ first meeting of the season, with the Warriors exploding into a 33-point lead late in the first half en route to a 116-96 home romp.
Warriors fans got their first look that night at Dallas’ version of Harrison Barnes, Golden State’s 2012 first-round pick who was instrumental in the club’s run to the 2015 championship and repeat trip to the NBA Finals last June.
Barnes left for the Mavericks’ four-year, $94 million free agent offer in the offseason shortly after the Warriors got Kevin Durant to agree to a two-year, $54.3 million deal that exhausted almost all their available funds.
Barnes responded to a warm reception in his homecoming with a team-high 25 points in the lopsided loss.
“I wish we had gotten a win,” Barnes, the Mavericks’ leading scorer at 20.3 points per game, said after the game. “But I’m proud of how we fought.”
Barnes took 20 shots in the game, which was only three more than Seth Curry, who started for the Mavericks at point guard.
Seth Curry missed 13 of his 17 shots, including seven of his nine 3-pointers, in a rare head-to-head with his brother Stephen, the Golden State point guard.
Seth Curry finished with 10 points and nine assists, while brother Stephen, the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, countered with 24 points and six assists.
“Extremely weird, but it’s also fun,” Stephen Curry said of the duel with his younger brother. “Tough night for him tonight, but he’s confident. He knows who he is.”
In head-to-heads with his brother, Seth Curry came up on the short end both on the scoreboard and in the stats all four times.
In leading the Warriors to three straight wins over Seth Curry’s Sacramento Kings during the 2015-16 season and the Nov. 9 thumping of Dallas, Stephen Curry contributed an average of 26 points and 8.3 rebounds to the Golden State cause, while Seth totaled just 26 points and 15 points for the opposition.
Seth Curry hasn’t started a game since Nov. 23, but he is displaying the most consistent form of his career off the bench in recent games. He had seven points and three steals Thursday in Dallas’ 101-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, giving him a 10.3 scoring average in 15 games and double-figure scoring in 10 of the 15 since his return to the bench.
Dallas will be playing a back-to-back for the seventh time this season when it faces the Warriors. The Mavericks have lost on the second night on all six previous occasions, falling by an average of 14.5 points.
The 21-point loss at Golden State in November also occurred on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Warriors haven’t played since a 121-111 home win over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.
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