Warriors look to close out Mavs

SAN FRANCISCO » The Golden State Warriors find themselves in familiar territory after failing to close out a series on the road and hope for familiar results when they return home.

For the third straight series, the Warriors lost their first chance to advance while playing on the road.

But they can make it to their sixth NBA Finals in the past eight years by finishing off the Dallas Mavericks at home in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday night.

The Warriors managed to rebound after those slipups in the first two rounds against Denver and Memphis and are hoping for a repeat after losing 119-109 at Dallas on Tuesday night when the Mavericks got off to a fast start and didn’t slow down until the fourth quarter.

“It’s a good lesson learned,” guard Stephen Curry said. “You tip your hat to them because they made a lot of shots. We had a couple breakdowns in our zone that gave them easy looks, and they made us pay. We knew to close them out, it’s going to be tough. So you’ve got to strap up on defense. When we go home, Game 5 and figure out how to slow them down, especially in the first quarter.”

The Mavericks have staved off elimination three times this postseason, winning Games 6 and 7 against Phoenix in the second round and then again against the Warriors in Game 4. None of the games have been particularly close, with Dallas outscoring the opponents by 70 points in the three wins.

Luka Doncic has led the way with 98 points and 35 rebounds in the three wins but says the key has been aggressiveness on offense and more commitment to defense.

“We’ve got to believe,” Doncic said. “I think our defense was way better today, and I think we attacked the paint. Those two things are key, and that’s what we’ve got to bring to San Francisco.”

No team has ever rallied from 3-0 down to win a best-of-seven playoff series in NBA history and even getting it back to Dallas for Game 6 would be rare. Of the 146 previous teams to take a 3-0 lead, 90 finished off the series with a sweep with 42 more winning it in five.

With a win Thursday, the Mavs would be the 12th team to force a Game 6 and only three teams have gotten to a Game 7 before losing.