Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic overcome crippling weakness in win over Warriors

Heading into the third quarter of tonight's game, the Dallas Mavericks had shot 1-17 from downtown.

There seemed to be a lid on the bucket for the Mavs, and they couldn't get anything to fall. The Mavs still held a six-point lead over the Golden State Warriors, but things weren't looking great from a statistical standpoint if the Mavs wanted to win this game.

The Mavs were just 1-8 in games in which they shot below 30 percent from downtown, with their one win coming against the Washington Wizards.

Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic overcome crippling weakness in win over Warriors

The Mavs ended up finding a way to win against the Warriors by a score of 109-99, even through their poor shooting, and this says a lot about their defense in this game. Dallas forced 17 turnovers in this game, with 11 of them being in the first half, and Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford combined for nine blocks.

While all eyes were on Gafford's defensive effort, he also put on a show on the offensive end. Gafford continued his streak of consecutive makes without a miss and now is just two makes away without a miss from tying Wilt Chamberlain's record of 35.

Luka Doncic's triple-double streak finally ended tonight, but he still finished with 21 points and nine assists while also playing some great defense. Doncic also only drilled one 3-pointer for the first time this month but was finding other ways to score and was controlling the game.

This was a great win for Dallas, as it looks like they have snapped out of their nasty losing streak, and the defense has gone from awful to competitive. Typically, this was a game that Dallas would have lost in the first half of the season. Dallas' success has heavily relied upon their 3-point shooting, and after the game, Mavs guard Josh Green said that it was a "positive" that Dallas was still able to win while shooting so poorly.

It showed their commitment on the defensive end, and that is something they will need down the final stretch.

Dallas has a chance to extend their winning streak to five games tomorrow night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

For all the latest on Luka Doncic, Daniel Gafford, and the Dallas Mavericks this season, stay tuned.