DALLAS — The dunk will rightfully get most of the attention. In the fourth quarter, Andrew Wiggins received a kickout pass on the right wing from a driving Stephen Curry, blew by a closeout defender, saw the rim in front of him, and launched for a violent tomahawk dunk that came at the expense of Luka Dončić. While the slam was clearly impressive—a consensus of Warriors agreeing after the game it was their favorite of Wiggins’s—it wasn’t merely a highlight. It was also an exclamation point. Golden State, after a 109–100 win over the Mavs, is on the precipice of a return to the NBA Finals, their first since 2019. And the emergence of Wiggins—first a bust, then an overpaid role player, to now in the perfect situation—is a big reason why.
“I can tell you everybody in the organization is happy he’s here,” Klay Thompson said of Wiggins after Game 3. “Without him we would not be where we’re at.”
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