On April 22, 2024, Beijing time, in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Los Angeles Clippers hosted the Dallas Mavericks.
Harden + Zubac, not afraid of Doncic going it alone
In the first quarter of the game, Coffey took the lead in helping the Clippers score with a three-pointer, and the Mavericks tried to shoot from mid-to-long range at first, and Doncic hit the inside for an easy layup. The Clippers started the game with a lot of Zubac single-handedly playing Gafford, and the success rate was very high, Zubac played two consecutive rounds, and then faced Lively's hook with Harden's assist, and some of Zubac was treated as Jokic. Then George also made a three-pointer and stopped the Mavericks directly. The Mavericks' own offense and defense are not as patient as the Clippers, and they can't open three points, so they fell behind the Clippers at the beginning.
After the Mavericks took a timeout, Doncic scored from mid-range, and the Mavericks increased their defense, and the defense was successful in the first round, but in the second round, Zubac was about to get Irving's misalignment, and the pass from George also caused Irving to foul but unfortunately missed the free throw, Doncic continued to hit the iron with three points, and finally relied on the breakthrough to cause George to foul and score free throws. Wei Shao made his first three-point shot after coming on the court, Harden hit a three-point shot, and Doncic finally made a three-point shot, facing Zubac! But Zubac can respond in his own way, scoring under the basket, Harden stepped back to shoot three points and continued to shoot, Doncic failed to return the three points, Harden held the ball and broke through the throw to continue to score, and the last attack was beyond the long three-point shot, the Clippers led the Mavericks 34-22 at the end of the first quarter, Harden got 11 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 2 blocks in a single quarter, Zubac also got 10 points and 4 rebounds, and the Mavericks Doncic got 11 points and 4 rebounds.
The Lone Ranger goes further and further down the wrong path
In the second quarter of the game, Wei Shao directly completed a dunk, the Mavericks did not choose a more stable way to score, and kept shooting from the outside, but unfortunately the feel was too bad! Doncic and Jones continued to play iron, Lively did not make a basket under the basket, Powell threw and scored, Washington missed the three-point shot, Mann missed the shot, Plumlee scored a basket, the difference has come to 18 points, and the Mavericks were stopped in less than 2 minutes.
After the timeout, the Mavericks began to use the pick-and-roll to hit Gafford and caused Plumlee to foul the free throw and score 1 point, and the defense finally got some attitude and started to work hard. Wei Shao was still the most active player on the court, stealing Gafford and then fouling Washington's layup, and a small conflict broke out between the two sides, and then Washington also fouled Wei Shao's layup in the defensive round, and Wei Shao stealed Irving in the next round. Then the Mavericks also completed the defense continuously, but unfortunately Doncic and Irving missed three points, otherwise they could further narrow the score.
What is not good for the Mavericks is that Gafford came back this round and sprained his ankle and went straight back to the locker room! Levery received Doncic's assist to complete the dunk, and Harden was released to shoot three points (currently 4 of 4 three-pointers)! Doncic missed consecutive shots, made mistakes on the layup, and was stealed by George, and the game was really bad! Kleber fouled Harden for three points, hit all three free throws, Kleber made another pass error, and Harden scored a single Hardaway jumper, scoring two plus one, and the difference has come to 22 points. Then the Mavericks' offensive defense did not improve much, and they missed the last 12 shots! At halftime, the Clippers led the Mavericks 56-30, and the Mavericks scored only 8 points in the second quarter, setting a record for the worst in NBA playoff history!
Summary of the first half
It's not how well the Clippers are doing, it's how bad the Mavericks themselves are! Doncic wanted to use his personal ability to solve the problem from the beginning, but the effect was very poor! After the shooting failed, the Clippers played a lot of individual defense, so it was impossible to create opportunities for teammates. And the Clippers' tactics are very clear, they know where their strong points are, Zubac plays Gafford, Harden can be misplaced in the single Doncic and Irving, plus those unreasonable three-pointers, directly beat the Mavericks without any ability to fight back. After losing the rhythm of the game, Kidd did not let players like Doncic calm down and chose the most stable way to score, but instead shot a lot of three-pointers, but unfortunately they didn't hit!
Owen became the initiator of the Mavericks' offense
In the second half of the game, Gafford returned to the court, and it seemed that it was no big deal! Harden took the lead in shooting three points, Irving finally returned it, Zubac continued to play under the basket, Irving assisted Gafford to complete the empty dunk, Doncic made a mistake in holding the ball for the first time, and passed the ball directly to Zubac. Then Irving and Doncic scored four straight points to bring the deficit back to 22 points, and the Clippers opted for a timeout. George made a three-pointer after the timeout, Doncic singled out Mann and continued to miss, Harden assisted for Coffey to shoot a three-pointer in the bottom corner, and then assisted George for a three-pointer, bringing the margin back to 29 points. In the end, the Mavericks relied on Irving's consecutive mid-range shots to score, and Doncic finally made another three-pointer, and the score was chased to 20 points, and Tyronn Lue took another timeout.
Then Irving helped the Mavericks narrow the score to within 20 points, Doncic grabbed three points and missed, and Powell did not play alone, Zubac scored inside, Powell scored three points, and Irving had to return the three points, but Mann also had three points, Hardaway three points finally came, and at the end of the third quarter, the Mavericks trailed the Clippers 64-87.
The first half was too big to dig holes, and the Mavericks were ultimately powerless
In the final quarter of the game, Washington made a three-pointer and Doncic also made a three-pointer, and the score was chased to 15 points. The Clippers quickly called a timeout, George scored four points in a row, Doncic hit a three-pointer, and then George and Mann also hit three-pointers, and the margin returned to more than 20 points. When Doncic made free throws, Zubac and Kleber made too big moves when they grabbed the rebounds, and were blown a first-level malicious foul, giving the Mavericks three free throws and the ball, Irving scored a technical foul and made free throws, Kleber made one of two free throws, Doncic singled Zubac to complete the shooting and score, and the difference returned to within 20 points, but there was not much time left for them.
Harden broke through and scored a foul free throw, Irving also caused a foul free throw to score 1 point, Irving grabbed the rebound but missed the rebound. The Clippers began to control the game time, George missed three points, Green converted the offense and was fouled and scored 2 points, George made a mistake and was stealed by Green, but unfortunately Washington missed the three-point shot, but fortunately he grabbed the rebound and scored a shot under the basket, and the difference returned to 14 points!
During this time, the Clippers' offense stalled, but Kidd called a timeout, giving the Clippers a chance to adjust, and Harden made a three-point shot after the timeout! Doncic caused a foul and scored 2 points on the free throw. The Mavericks defended with just about 24 seconds left before Washington fouled George on a shooting and sent George two free throws to score. Doncic missed a three-point shot, Irving scrambled to score a three-pointer, the Clippers controlled the time for 24 seconds and violated, Irving missed a jumper, Kleber scored a basket, and in the last 1 minute, the Mavericks trailed by 12 points, and there was no hope of chasing points, and finally the Clippers won 109-97 against the Mavericks, and the Clippers led the Mavericks 1-0 in the series.
Full-time player stats
Clippers: Harden had 28 points, 2 rebounds and 8 assists on 8-of-17 shooting and 6-of-11 three-pointers, George had 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists on 8-of-20 shooting and 4-of-12 three-pointers, Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds, Mann had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, Coffey had 6 points and 3 rebounds, Westbrook had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and Powell had 5 points.
Mavericks: Doncic shot 11-of-26 from the field and 4-of-12 from three-point range to finish with 33 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal, Irving shot 10-of-18 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range for 31 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, Washington had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals, Gafford had 3 points, Jones shot 0-of-0 from the field, Hardaway had 6 points and 3 rebounds on 2-of-5 shooting, Green had 4 points, and Kleber had 3 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
Full game summary
It can be seen from the beginning that the Mavericks are obviously betting, betting that Doncic can play at a high level at the beginning, and has been letting Doncic shoot more, but the reality is that the intensity given by the Clippers has caused a lot of interference to Doncic. The Mavericks didn't choose a more reasonable way to get out of the predicament, and Doncic's previous roll call against the Clippers was rarely seen in this game, so he fell behind too much in the first half. So much so that in the second half, Irving exerted his strength to help the Mavericks complete the reversal, which was too difficult, and Harden and others did play well, and finally suffered a defeat.
The Mavericks are a little too contemptuous of their opponents, Leonard is absent, but there are Harden, George and Wei Shao, plus Zubac, who plays exceptionally, and does not take this Clippers seriously, and the Mavericks will finally suffer the consequences.
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