Dallas @ Golden State preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 13, 2019 ) Golden State 119, Dallas 114

The Golden State Warriors are searching for consistency with the playoffs on the horizon and will occasionally bust out a performance that makes it look inevitable that the team will win its third straight NBA title. The Warriors will try to follow up one such performance with another when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

Golden State dominated on both ends of the floor in a 112-89 victory over Indiana on Thursday, holding the Pacers to 38.5 percent shooting while handing out 32 assists on 44 field goals in a well-balanced effort that saw all five starters score in double figures, but none reach 20 points. "Our defense all night was eventually going to wear them down, and that's something that we talked about at halftime," Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "We knew we were going to eventually start to go offensively, and so the whole focus was just to maintain the defense and keep the pressure on." The Mavericks are losers of 15 of their last 17 games and saw the latest slide reach three straight with a 116-100 setback at the Sacramento Kings on Thursday. "At halftime we were keeping things reasonable," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. "I thought we were getting a lot of good shots, we were getting the pace of the game more in our favor. In the second half they picked it up and we didn't have good answers."

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (Dallas), NBCS Bay Area (Golden State)

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (28-44): Mavericks small forward Luka Doncic is averaging 21 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists in a season very likely to end with a Rookie of the Year award but is coming off a lackluster effort. The 20-year-old finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds but went 4-of-19 from the floor, including 2-of-10 from beyond the arc. "Everybody is loading up on him, so this is nothing new," Carlisle told reporters of Doncic. "We've seen a lot of this. He's got to keep attacking, making reads, seeing when double-teams are there and the right play is to advance the ball or hit a guy who's coming up from the corner or something like that, but it's tough."

ABOUT THE WARRIORS (49-22): Golden State is trying to hold off the Denver Nuggets for the No. 1 seed in the West and is looking for that consistency. "It's just developing an attitude where we try to impose our will every night," All-Star point guard Stephen Curry told reporters after scoring 15 points while going 5-of-12 from 3-point range on Thursday and handing out seven assists. Part of developing that consistency is getting used to playing again with center Andrew Bogut, who played his first home game since rejoining the team on Thursday and received a standing ovation from the crowd before scoring four points on 1-of-8 shooting in nine minutes off the bench.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Warriors PF Jonas Jerebko is 8-of-13 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, in the last two games.

2. Mavericks SG Tim Hardaway Jr. will miss the rest of the season due to a stress reaction in his left leg.

3. Golden State took the last two meetings and 12 of the last 13.

PREDICTION: Warriors 116, Mavericks 103