At 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on April 29, the first round of the NBA playoffs is in full swing, and the Dallas Mavericks continue to sit at home to face the Los Angeles Clippers. Before this game, the Mavericks led the Clippers by a big score of 2-1. The Clippers have really played badly in the last two games, Leonard, who has returned from injury, lacks offensive desire and cannot play any active role on the court, George's state is also very unstable, unpredictable, and Wei Shao is extremely inefficient and cold. In the first three games of the playoffs, Wei Shao's shooting rate was only 29%, which can be described as miserable. On the contrary, the Clippers are more stable than Harden, and their scoring state is also good, but it is a pity that Harden alone is difficult to offset the dual offensive firepower of Irving + Doncic on the Mavericks' side.
Speaking about the loss in the last game, Leonard also said in the interview: "I think we gave their big men too many opportunities for aerial relay dunks. That would show that they were attacking our basket at will. We've also talked about those second-chance offenses that the opponent gets, but that's where it starts with those aerial dunks. Gafford and Lively both have a lot of aerial relay dunks. Indeed, the interior configuration of the Clippers is far inferior to that of the Mavericks. Before the game, Mavericks coach Kidd was confident in them: "We're all tough, we're all competing for round by round, and we're all looking for ways to win. As the game progresses, the psychological factor becomes more important. It was a very physical game but we had to be mentally sharp and I think the players did a fantastic job of protecting each other and we were united. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Clippers are sending: George, Harden, Zubac, Mann and Coffey, Leonard is missing again due to injury, and the Mavericks are sending Doncic, Irving, PJ Washington, Gafford and Jones. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Gafford jumped the ball to win, the Mavericks took the lead in getting the ball, Doncic made an easy small throw in the paint area, scored the first goal of the game, George chased a three-point shot and suddenly made a cold arrow, and also opened for the Clippers, Doncic squeezed into the inside line to make a strong kill, stood on the free throw line and made two free throws, Zubac turned around in the penalty area, hit steadily, Doncic made a slow three-step layup and wiped the board, four minutes before the first quarter of the game, the score of the two sides was stalemate, in a stalemate. Soon, however, the Clippers began to break the deadlock.
Harden and Wei Shao burst into a three-point shot, George rushed to the restricted area and played a 2+1, the Clippers instantly pulled the score away, and the Mavericks completely collapsed in the first quarter, and the first quarter of the game ended, and the Clippers led the Mavericks by 23 points 39-16. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Washington hit the inside basket and made a layup, helping the Mavericks to take the next city, Harden immediately responded with a large three-pointer, Jones cut the inside line with one hand, Harden felt hot and scored another three-pointer, at the same time, Paul George also began to exert his strength, the outside shot repeatedly hit, the Clippers played a G1 hand, the team's three-point shooting rate reached 7 percent, in the middle of the second quarter, the Clippers once led the Mavericks 55-24 as many as 31 points. However, after a period of time, the Lone Ranger woke up in time.
They also relied on their interior advantage, constantly fighting for offensive rebounds to form a second offense, plus a fast-break counterattack, narrowing the disadvantage to about 20 points, and at the end of the half, the Clippers led the Mavericks by 17 points 66-49. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Irving hit a difficult turnover jumper to open the third quarter of the game, Zubac ate cake in the restricted area, his hands shook and slammed dunk, Irving flew and threw to continue to succeed, Mann shot with a bow outside the three-point line in the bottom corner, 100 steps through Yang, Coffey counterattacked and fast-break, one-handed split dunk ignited the whole court, Lively responded with a high shot inside, and Irving's large three-pointer was entering the center of the net. Heading into the second half, the Clippers' offensive efficiency continued to decline, while the Mavericks went from strength to strength at home, closing the gap under the leadership of the Eastern European pairs.
At the end of the third quarter, the Clippers led the Mavericks by four points, 82-78. In the final quarter, the Clippers preemptively stretched the difference to about 10 points, but then Irving broke out, the king of the last quarter reappeared, the combination of sudden shots was repeatedly successful, and the key moment was a super three-pointer to overtake the score, and the Clippers' 31-point lead in the first half came to naught. At the critical moment, George rushed into a fairy three-point rush in the bottom corner of Jones, Harden forced a breakthrough and threw in and added a penalty, the Clippers regained the initiative, refused to score 31 points super reversal, and relied on the extreme individual performances of Harden and George to win, and in the end, the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 116-111, and the big score came to a 2-2 draw.
In terms of statistics, on the Clippers' side, George scored 33 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists on 11-of-19 shooting, Harden scored 33 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists on 12-of-17, the two combined for 66 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists, Zubac scored 13 points and 4 rebounds, Mann Powell scored 11 points each, and Wei Shao scored 5 points. On the Mavericks' side, Doncic had 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, Irving had 40 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Jones had 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Washington had 10 points and 4 rebounds.