OAKLAND, Calif. – For a team that's supposed to be obsessed with finishing, the Mavericks did a horrible job Sunday night of closing out plays, quarters and, finally, Game 4.

That's why they're one loss away from being finished for the season.

The Mavericks were gouged by Baron Davis' greatness at the end of the second, third and fourth quarters, when the Warriors overcame substantial deficits. Finally, they outlasted a game effort by the Mavericks for a 103-99 victory at Oracle Arena and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 first-round series.

The Warriors – yes, the eighth-seeded Warriors – will go for the kill Tuesday at American Airlines Center. The Mavericks – No. 1-seeded and undeniably on their heels now – need three consecutive wins to avoid being the first top-seeded team to lose to the eighth seed since the first round went to seven games.

"I saw fire in our guys' eyes," coach Avery Johnson said. "We came to play. We just didn't finish the game. We didn't have a good finish to the fourth quarter. And that's been our theme all year."

The Mavericks were outscored by eight in the final four minutes of the second quarter, by nine in the final 3:06 of the third and by 11 in the final 6:22 of the fourth.

Davis had 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting, including a 50-foot bank shot at the halftime buzzer.

He also had a crucial steal and dunk in the final second of the third quarter.

Then, he started a wonderful finish to the game by completing a fast break with 2:35 to go in the fourth for a 91-90 Golden State lead that they never relinquished.

"All the lost opportunities we had in the fourth quarter hurt," said Jason Terry, whose dismal series continued with 7-of-19 shooting and three of the Mavs' 19 turnovers. "We had the lead and the momentum just turned.

"Now we're either going to go home or play on. We feel we have a lot of basketball left in us."

They have to hope it's more than they had left at the end of what was a big-time, entertaining playoff game throughout. They went five consecutive possessions without scoring as the Warriors moved ahead in the fourth. When Davis reared up for an 18-footer over Devin Harris with 57.3 left, the Warriors were up 96-90.

The Mavericks were stuck on 90 points for more than three minutes until Terry hit a 3-pointer with 45.5 seconds to go. Matt Barnes' triple with 23.9 left made it 99-93. The Mavs were cooked.

Earlier, Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse and DeSagana Diop were having monster games at both ends of the floor and they seemed to have the Mavericks in good position to even the series.

They had done just about everything they wanted to accomplish in the first half, then got burned by a lightning bolt heading into the locker room.

They had successfully controlled the pace and taken the Oracle Arena crowd out of the game for much of the half, leading by as much as nine points.

LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN

The Mavericks' DeSagana Diop (left), Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry are one loss away from being eliminated after their 103-99 loss to Golden State in Game 4 of the best-of-7 playoff series.

The Warriors had made a push late in the second quarter and were tied at 46 until Nowitzki appeared to give the Mavericks a 49-46 lead going into halftime with a three-point play on a rebound of a Jason Terry miss with 1.1 showing on the clock.

But the Warriors inbounded to Davis, who quickly pulled up just beyond the half-court line and drilled a 50-footer that banged off the glass and through the net in stunning fashion to knot the score.

If that wasn't a confirmation that the basketball gods are smiling on the Warriors these days, nothing was.

Still, the Mavericks gathered themselves and went up 72-63 in the third quarter. Once again, the end-of-quarter blues struck. The Mavericks were outscored 14-5 the rest of the way, capped by a Davis steal of an inbounds pass and his breakaway bucket with 1.2 seconds left in the quarter.

The Mavericks had said they wanted a tough, grind-it-out fourth quarter, and that's exactly what they were faced with. They just couldn't handle the Warriors when the game was on the line.