The Dallas Mavericks were uninterested in Saturday's game from the outset, and by the game's end, the Warriors didn't care much about the outcome, either.
The Warriors got a 111-87 victory over the exhausted defending champs, but the Warriors' postgame attention was once again trained on the balky right ankle of their point guard.
The Warriors (16-21) got 20-plus points apiece from David Lee, Monta Ellis and Nate Robinson to blow past Dallas (23-20), which was playing its third game in as many nights and fifth game in six nights. The Mavericks made their point guard Jason Kidd a healthy scratch, and the Warriors should have considered doing the same with their lead guard.
Stephen Curry, starting for the first time since he sprained his right foot Feb. 22 - a six-game and 17-day span - tweaked the surgically repaired ankle on the same leg midway through the third quarter.
He tried to wave off coach Mark Jackson's substitution, threw his mouth guard and smacked a courtside seat before eventually relenting to a season that was fated to be filled with frustration.
Curry initially reinjured his ankle in the second preseason game, then did it again in Game 2 of the regular season and for a third time Jan. 4. The latter sprain, at San Antonio, cost Curry eight games over a 16-day stretch. Throughout that hiatus and the more recent 17-day break, the Warriors promised that their point guard wouldn't return until he was 100 percent healthy.
Both times, the ultimate competitor talked his way back onto the court before he reached that milestone. Both times, he ended up limping back to the locker room alongside head athletic trainer Chad Bergman.
"We had a cushion, and we decided we didn't need him the rest of the night," coach Mark Jackson said. The Warriors said no X-rays were necessary, and Curry's ankle is stable.
The Warriors have done everything possible, investigating Curry's shoes, braces and taping. They've got some of the best ankle and foot specialists in the medical world detailing his rehab and monitoring his progress.
But they've mismanaged the situation in the most important area: None of it matters if Curry doesn't get completely healthy before returning to the court.
It's understandable that the Warriors keep giving in to Curry. Their offense is hard-to-watch stagnant without him, and their transition game plods into nonexistence.
But you get the feeling that they're risking the future of their most important player in hopes of finishing 11th instead of 13th in the Western Conference. The difference between 11th and 13th is about as significant as Saturday's game was to the Mavericks.
Game review
Key player: Nate Robinson came off the bench for injured Stephen Curry, scoring 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Key stat: Warriors center Andris Biedrins didn't play a second, one game after logging 2:01 against Memphis.
Key stretch: Robinson and Monta Ellis combined to score 16 points in the Warriors' 18-9, third-quarter-closing run, responding to Jason Terry's three-pointer that trimmed the Dallas deficit to eight points with 6:41 remaining.
Key quote: "He was aggressive, setting screens, posting up and forcing one of the greatest players in the world to play defense," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said of David Lee, who had 25 points and nine rebounds against Dirk Nowitzki. "He set the tone for us."
Of note: The Warriors had 25 fastbreak points, their second consecutive game with at least that many after scoring single-digit transition points in five of their previous seven games.
- Rusty Simmons
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron. rsimmons@sfchronicle.com
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