At 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on April 22, the NBA playoff matchup is in full swing, with the Los Angeles Clippers sitting at home and facing the Dallas Mavericks, and the G1 battle between the two sides is about to break out. In the regular season, the Clippers ranked fourth in the West with a 51-31 record, while the Mavericks ranked fifth in the West with a 50-32 record. Although the Clippers are one of the most luxurious teams in the league and have a better regular season record than the Mavericks, more people are actually optimistic that the Mavericks can win the Clippers. There are several reasons, first, the Clippers star Leonard is injured, in the final stage of the regular season, Xiaoka missed the last 8 games due to injury, and has not fully recovered until now. Second, the Clippers' interior power cannot match the Mavericks.
After the Mavericks introduced Lively and Gafford to the outside world, the strength of the restricted area has been greatly improved, and he is very dominant at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. Third, Doncic and Irving have been on fire lately and have been extremely efficient. If the Clippers want to win the game, they don't just rely on the Pepper combination, Harden needs to get back to the scoring form of the Rockets. Speaking about his playoff journey, Harden also said, "Of course I want to be good on an individual level, but I also want the team to play well. I think I'm one of the leaders of the team to make sure that everyone in the team is playing well and getting the most out of each player. Other (role) players, these players will help us to win, to achieve our goals. I think that's what I need to do as one of the team leaders. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Clippers are sending: Harden, Mann, Coffey, George and Zubac, Leonard continues to be absent, and the Mavericks are sending Doncic, Irving, Jones, Zubac and Gafford on the side. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Zubac jumped the ball to win, the Clippers took the lead in getting the ball, Coffey confidently hit a three-point shot and scored the first goal of the game, Doncic also opened for the Mavericks with the help of blocking and dismantling to break through to the layup, George drove straight into the flying body and threw a steady hand, Irving made a tough confrontation and broke through to create damage, stood on the free throw line and hit both free throws, Washington fired from the outside of the bottom corner and was entering the center of the net, Zubac scored steadily with a low big hook, George's wing three-point fire hollow into the net, entering the middle of the first quarter, the Clippers began to take the initiative。
Harden did not disappoint, shooting three three-pointers in a row from the same position, scoring 11 points and 3 assists on 4-of-5 shooting in a single quarter, leading the Clippers to a 10-point lead, and at the end of the first quarter, the Clippers led the Mavericks by 12 points at 34-22. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Wei Shao changed to the lightning to break through the one-handed splitting and dunking skills, helping the Clippers to take the next city, Powell threw a hollow shot into the net in the bottom corner, Plumlee stepped on the snow in the restricted area and took off the offensive rebound without a trace, and hit a strong rebound, the Clippers expanded the difference to 18 points with a wave of 6-0, Irving converted the offense to a quick layup for the Mavericks to stop the bleeding in time, but Harden continued to break out, and then scored 9 points in a row with a combination of personal ability sudden shots, and then hit the basket to score 2+1, and the Mavericks completely collapsed.
In the second quarter of the game, the Mavericks only scored 8 points in a single quarter, Doncic had no feeling, and did not score a point in 0 of 5 shots in a single quarter, and at the end of the half, the Clippers led the Mavericks by 26 points at 56-30, and Harden scored 20 points at halftime. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Harden came up and scored another three-pointer, opening the third quarter of the game, Irving chased a three-point shot to fight back, Zubac turned around under the basket, easily threw and hit, Irving was unstoppable, and went straight to the Yellow Dragon to stage a rare flying dunk, Doncic's European step layup shook off the defense, and also scored a goal, George faced the defense, the difficult jumper was into the center of the net, Irving used the cover, the high-arc throw scored and the color, although the Mavericks rebounded strongly on the offensive end in the third quarter, Irving scored 20 points in a single quarter of 8 shots。
But the Clippers didn't give any chance, they were full of firepower, and their three-point efficiency was full, and they maintained a lead of more than 20 points. At the end of the third quarter, the Clippers led the Mavericks by 23 points at 87-64. In the final quarter, although the Mavericks launched a crazy counterattack, Doncic gradually got better, leading the team to further narrow the score gap, but Harden was unrelenting at the critical moment, hitting three-pointers one after another, and the Clippers always maintained a double-digit lead, and in the end, the Clippers easily defeated the Mavericks 109-97 and won G1 to get off to a good start.
In terms of statistics, on the Mavericks' side, Doncic scored 33 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists, Irving scored 31 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, the Eastern European combination combined for 64 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists, and Washington had 11 points and 7 rebounds. On the Clippers' side, Harden dreamed of returning to the top, hitting 6 three-pointers and scoring 28 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks, George 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Wei Shao was also very efficient, 5 of 8 got 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Zubac 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Mann 13 points and 9 rebounds.