The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and the Clippers, who are fourth in the West, are at home to welcome the challenge of the fifth Mavericks in the West. On the opposite side, Doncic and Irving, two leading scorers, teamed up, and the Clippers were seen as not having much advantage before the game. However, Harden led the team to a furious offensive performance. Harden dreamed of returning to the top, and in the end, after four quarters of fierce competition, the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 109-97 at home to win the first game. The Clippers had three outstanding performances and were the heroes of the victory, and the Mavericks played to the extreme and were hard to win.
First, the reason why the Clippers were able to win was because of the strong play of the three giants after the small card, especially Harden, George and Zubac.
Harden played 38 minutes in the game, shooting 8-of-17 from the field, 6-of-11 from three-point range, 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, 28 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks, with a plus/minus of +7. Since 2019, Harden's team has never lost a series in G1. Harden has done a pretty good job of attacking and organizing the team individually, switching between offense and playmaking freely. Dreaming of returning to the peak of four years ago, hitting six three-pointers, and having a good shot from the outside, he can open up space for the Clippers offense, and the Mavericks dare not let him go easily. The whole game was played quite efficiently and became the absolute hero of the Clippers' victory.
In addition, although George did not perform well in the first half of this game, he scored 17 points in the second half. In the whole game, George played 37 minutes, shooting 8 of 20, 4 of 12 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, with a plus/minus of +7. George hit 262 three-pointers in the playoffs in his career, surpassing Horry for 15th all-time. George became the savior of the Clippers at critical moments, integrating offense and defense, and George used his individual ability to help the Clippers win.
Zubac played even more dominance on the inside, and after Gafford left the game with an injury, the Mavericks had no one to limit Zubac, who played 33 minutes, shooting 10-of-17 from the field, cutting 20 points, 15 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block, with a plus/minus of +15. Zubac's 20-point score in a single game also set a career-high for him. Today, the main player played a furious individual offensive and defensive performance eight times and became the backbone of the Clippers' interior line.
In addition, Mann and Coffey both contributed, and Mann was positive, playing 39 minutes, shooting 4-of-8, 3-of-3 from three-point range, and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line, scoring 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 2-of-2 assists, with a plus/minus of +12. Powell on the bench did not perform well, shooting 2 of 6, only getting 5 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist, but Wei Shao was still passionate, both offensive and defensive, and his performance was quite comprehensive, cutting 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Plumley had two points, five rebounds and one assist.
Second, the Mavericks have played to the extreme in this game, and they still can't win, which makes the team feel very disappointed.
First of all, the Eastern European combination played strongly, but the substitutes were too poor.
Doncic can explode in every game against the Mavericks, and the Eastern European combination in this game combined for 64 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists, playing quite comprehensively, but still unable to lead the team to victory. In particular, Irving scored 20 points in the third quarter but couldn't close the gap. In this game, Doncic played 42 minutes, shooting 11 of 26, 4 of 12 three-pointers, and got 33 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.
His partner, Irving, played 39 minutes, shooting 10-of-18 from the field, 3-of-6 from three-point range and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line to finish with 31 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Doncic and Irving combined for 64 points, while the rest of the players combined for just 33. The combination of Owen and Dong Ji, with such a high score, can be said to have done their best, and they can't fight to win a game, which makes the two of them very disappointed.
The second is that today's home whistle is also quite obvious, and the Clippers get much fewer free throws than the Mavericks. At home, they were not given preferential treatment at all, and on the contrary, the opposite side received a lot of free throws. Although the Clippers played well inside with 36 points, while the Mavericks scored 32 points lower than the Clippers, the Mavericks made 33 free throws in this game, while the Clippers only made 13 free throws.
The third Mavericks player, this year's blockbuster Gafford only played 14 minutes before leaving the court due to injury, Gafford did not perform well, only played 14 minutes of 4 shots, 1 of 2 free throws, scored 3 points and 1 block, did not grab rebounds, plus/minus -8, the Mavericks lost this interior general. And the Clippers have not yet returned, and when the second game comes, the Clippers will be stronger, and the Mavericks will be more fierce and unlucky.
The Clippers have a huge advantage over the Mavericks, and as can be seen from the first game, the pre-game prediction that the Mavericks can eliminate the Clippers is simply ridiculous. Wait until the little card comes back. Harden only needs to contribute an average of 20 points per game to easily eliminate the Mavericks 4-0.