OAKLAND (California) • The Golden State Warriors took advantage of a short-handed Dallas Mavericks squad to record a 52nd consecutive home victory, riding another record-setting three-point-shooting performance to a hard-earned 128-120 win.
The Warriors set a National Basketball Association (NBA) record for most three-pointers in a season by connecting with 21-of-45 attempts.
The 17th of those 21 came with 9min 51sec to go in the game and was the Warriors' 934th of the season, allowing them to surpass the previous record set by the Houston Rockets last season.
Klay Thompson bombed in nine three-pointers on a 40-point night and Stephen Curry nailed five threes to account for almost half his 33 points, helping Golden State (65-7) remain four games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs (61-11) for top seeding in the Western Conference play-offs.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle chose to rest veteran stars Dirk Nowitzki and Deron Williams with a winnable back-to-back coming in Sacramento and Denver today and tomorrow.
The loss dropped the Mavericks (35-37) behind the Rockets (36-37), and into a tie with the Utah Jazz (35-37) for the eighth and final play-off spot in the West.
Dallas trailed by as many as 18 points before rallying within 94-102 by scoring the first five points of the fourth quarter.
Thompson's record-setting trey made it a double-figure margin again, but Mavericks reserve Charlie Villanueva countered with three threes, the third of which narrowed the Dallas deficit to 116-113 with 3min 18sec still to play.
But Harrison Barnes hit a turnaround jumper, Curry dropped in a lay-up and the Warriors held on from there to beat Dallas for the 10th time in their last 11 meetings and clinch their third straight win.
The nine threes by Thompson pushed his season total to 246, which eclipsed his previous career-high of 239 set last season.
"That's pretty sweet," he said. "The game is kind of changing, and I think we're on the forefront of that. Our team's shooting ability is second to none."
Carlisle was positive despite the defeat. He said: "We've shown that we can compete with everybody in the league. The important thing now is getting there.
"The next 10 games are going to tell the story."
REUTERS