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via Imago

via Imago

The Golden State Warriors are back on the road as they travel to Texas to face the Dallas Mavericks. The Western Conference rivals will battle it out at the American Airlines Center at 7:30 pm EST tonight.

This is the first meeting between the two sides, who play twice in two days. The Warriors come into the game on the back of a loss against the Celtics. They have been struggling to find consistency all season, and have an 11-10 record currently.

The Mavericks won last night against the Hawks, finally putting an end to their six-game losing streak. Their record is still an embarrassing 9-13 which they will be desperate to fix soon.

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Golden State Warriors expected lineup

The Warriors are in trouble because of their injury crisis. All four players who can play center are on the injury list. Marquese Chriss and Alen Smailagic were already injured, but now James Wiseman and Kevon Looney have also joined them. So this will force them to use Draymond Green at center. They have done that before too, but there were other centers coming off the bench, and now they have none.

USA Today via Reuters

Their lineup could feature Stephen Curry and Kelly Oubre Jr as the guards, Andrew Wiggins and Eric Paschall as the forwards, and Draymond Green as the center.

Dallas Mavericks expected lineup

In contrast to the Warriors’ struggles, the Mavericks have zero injuries. They have a fully fit team entering into this game, and that could be a big boost for them.

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USA Today via Reuters

They will start with Luka Doncic and Josh Richardson as their guards, Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber as their guards, and Kristaps Porzingis as their center.

Predictions

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The Warriors‘ big man crisis could allow Porzingis to have a big game. Draymond is capable of defending bigger players, but unless coach Steve Kerr has him on Porzingis continuously, it won’t work for them. The Dallas star’s recent form is another bad sign for the Warriors. Doncic vs Curry will be a fun battle, but Porzingis could potentially win the game for the Mavs.

Unless we see a spectacular bail-out from Curry, the Warriors won’t have enough to stop the Mavs.