Here are five observations from the Warriors’ 120-116 win over the Mavericks on Saturday night in Oracle Arena.



1. The new, improved second unit



The Warriors played 17 different lineup combinations against the Mavericks. Six of them were net negatives. Eight of them held even. Three of them pumped out a positive output.



One unit, a newly cobbled together group, stood out among the rest. In a four-point win, they were a monster plus-17 in nine minutes.



That would be coach Steve Kerr’s new five-man unit that starts the second and fourth quarters: Steph Curry, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Jonas Jerebko and Draymond Green.



They took over, down three, to start the second quarter and Kerr didn’t make a substitution until they were up three, four-and-a-half minutes later. They reconvened to start the fourth, up seven, and Kerr didn’t make a substitution until they’d stretched that lead all the way up to 18 with...