Stephen Curry led the Golden State Warriors with 21 points as they defeated the Dallas Mavericks 112-87 in their Western Conference final opener.
The Warriors held Dallas star Luka Doncic to 20 points, his lowest total of the playoffs.
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“We did what we were supposed to do – protect home court, win the first game,” said Stephen Curry, who also had a game-high 12 rebounds.
“We had a specific game-plan coming in, and for the most part, we executed it.”
Andrew Wiggins led the Warriors with 19 points and was instrumental in limiting Doncic’s impact.
“‘Wiggs’ was fantastic. Doncic is as difficult a cover as there is in the league,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
“We just asked Wiggs to try to hound him, stay in front of him, keep pressure on him. He did a fantastic job.”
Doncic averaged 29 points per game in the playoff series win over the Utah Jazz and 32.6 points per game in the semi-final series win over the Phoenix Suns.
“They did a great job,” Doncic said of the Warriors.
“Of course we could do things better. In the first quarter, we had a lot of good looks. The second quarter, too. But not in the second half.”
The best-of-seven series will resume on Friday (02:00 BST Saturday), when the Warriors will be back at home in San Francisco.
The Miami Heat are 1-0 up on the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, and they play their second game on Thursday (01:30 BST Friday).
