The Warriors’ offence, lacking their two best players, struggled to establish a rhythm and lost their magical road performance, falling short against the Dallas Mavericks 109-99 on Wednesday at American Airlines Centre.

With 27 points, Jonathan Kuminga led the Warriors, but he also made six mistakes. After a slow start, Andrew Wiggins scored 17 points. Nine rebounds and ten points were provided by Trayce Jackson-Davis.

On a night when Draymond Green was sidelined due to lower back pain and Stephen Curry missed his third straight game due to a right ankle injury, the Warriors needed a lot more.

All they understood was that.

Golden State’s only real success was ending Luka Dončić’s run of straight triple-doubles at six games. Even with his 21 points, nine assists, and three rebounds, Dončić was outstanding.

In addition, the Mavericks offered him a lot of assistance, something Kuminga did not receive from the Warriors.

With nine victories in their previous 11 games away from Chase Centre, Golden State (34-31) was among the NBA’s hottest road teams before being swept by the Mavs.

When Chris Paul was called for a technical foul in the fourth quarter and then turned back to the referee to ridicule him, the Warriors’ frustrations reached a boiling point.

Although Golden State’s situation will not get any better, the Warriors may get back on track if they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers on the road this Saturday.

Following are the lessons learned from Wednesday’s game:

Where was the assistance directed?

Throughout the whole game, Curry and Green’s absences were felt, especially on the offensive end when the Warriors were unable to establish any kind of rhythm.

Two days after Golden State had six players score at least 13 points in a win over the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors were pretty much a one-man show for most of the night.

Due of the Mavs’ height and quickness up close, Kuminga struggled to finish multiple hard drives down the lane despite starting the game with 16 points. Nevertheless, he reached the 20-point mark for the seventh time in his previous nine games, demonstrating a marked improvement in his consistency.

The fact that the Warriors did not do much to assist him was the greater problem.

Klay Thompson and Paul were very cold.

Thompson finished the game with three points on three of his thirteen shots, mostly off target. He seems to miss a lot of shots from the mid-range, where he has always been reliable. Paul, starting again in place of Curry, wasn’t much better with nine points while going 4 of 12 from the floor and finishing minus-14.

Terrible second half

The Warriors were held to 15 points in a terrible second quarter, which turned the tide of the game in the Mavs’ favour.

The issues also appeared everywhere.

Golden State missed 10 of its first 11 attempts in the period, shot 30.4 percent overall (7 of 23, 1 of 6 behind the arc) and committed eight turnovers that the Mavericks turned into 10 points.

The fact that the Warriors were able to recover and maintain a narrow lead in the third quarter highlighted their issues from the previous quarter even more.

Filling in for Draymond

Green does so much for the Warriors that it’s nearly impossible to replace him with just one guy.

That’s why coach Steve Kerr tried a three-pronged option, starting Jackson-Davis and using Kevon Looney and Dario Saric as well.

The trio combined for 14 points, 11 rebounds and two assists. Compare that to Green, who puts up 9.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game.