By R.L. Bynum
Reggie Bullock scored a career playoff-high 21 points on Friday night, but they weren’t enough as the Dallas Mavericks fell behind 2–0 in their Western Conference finals series with the Golden State Warriors.
Bullock notched a career playoff-high six 3-pointers in the Mavericks’ 126–117 loss Friday as he put up a 15.4 game score, the second-best of his playoff career. That is topped only by his 15.4 in a 19-point, seven-rebound effort in Game 6 of the series in the last round against the Phoenix Suns.
Dallas jumped out to a 72–58 halftime lead as Bullock netted five of the Mavericks’ 15 first-half 3-pointers. The Warriors had a two-point lead heading into the final quarter, though, after outscoring Dallas 25–13 in the third quarter.
“We know how good they are as a third-quarter team,” Bullock said. “It’s just something that slipped away from us as the game continued to go on. And that came from a lot of us taking early 3s; they got it going.”
Dallas was 2 of 13 from 3-point range in the third quarter, when Bullock missed all three of his shots (all 3-point attempts).
Bullock, who had 12 points in the Mavs’ 112–87 Game 1 loss on Wednesday, has spent most of the series guarding Stephen Curry. Their heads bumped late in Friday’s game, leading Bullock to bleed around his right eye. After a bit of work from the trainer, he went right back into the game.
It’s tough for any defender to contain Curry, though. He followed up a 21-point night in Game 1 with 32 points in Game 2.
After running into a Draymond Green screen and knocking him down late in the first half trying to stay with Curry, Bullock got into a brief confrontation with Green.
Luka Doncic led Dallas with 42 points and Jalen Brunson added 31.
Theo Pinson continues to be a vocal supporter from the Dallas bench but hasn’t been active for any of the Mavericks’ playoff games.
Reggie Bullock, Dallas Mavericks guard/forward
112–87 Game 1 Wednesday loss at Golden State — Started; 36 minutes, 12 points, 4–12 FG, 3–10 3FG, 1–1 FT, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, -27, 6.9 game score
126–117 Game 2 Friday loss at Golden State — Started; 44 minutes, 21 points, 6–11 FG, 6–10 3FG, 3–3 FT, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover, -7, 15.4 game score
Playoff statistics — 15 games, 11.1 points, 41.7 FG%, 40.0 3P%, 94.1 FT%, 4.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists
Regular-season statistics — 68 games, 8.6 points, 40.1 FG%, 36.0 3P%, 83.3 FT%, 3.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists
Mavericks-Warriors Western Conference finals
(All games at 9 p.m. on TNT)
Game 1 in San Francisco: Golden State 112, Dallas 87
Game 2 in San Francisco: Golden State 126, Dallas 117; Warriors lead series 2–0
Sunday in Dallas
Tuesday, May 24 in Dallas
X — Thursday, May 26 in San Francisco
X — Saturday, May 28 in Dallas
X — Monday, May 30 in San Francisco
X — If needed
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