Just yesterday in the NBA playoffs, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks played out again. Although Harden had a milestone night in the game, his outstanding performance still struggled to turn the Clippers around. In this game, he hit four three-pointers in a row, which can be described as full firepower, but in the end the Clippers still lost to the Mavericks, and the big score became 1-2.
Shortly after the start of the game, neither team had a high shooting percentage, and Harden hit just one of his first four shots, which made it a bit uncontrollable. But he deserved to be the man of the big scene, and on the final attack of the first quarter, he staged his trademark three-pointer to put the Clippers up 23-18 to end the first quarter. The ball was really emotional, as if to tell the audience that his state was absolutely on the line tonight.
Entering the second quarter, Harden began to really exert his power, using Plumlee's cover to get rid of the defense, and refreshingly raised his hand to shoot from beyond the three-point line. For the next two minutes, he hit a three-pointer against Irving's defense, but the other two giants of the Clippers, George and Leonard, were in trouble. George picked up his third foul less than five minutes into the second quarter and had to go to the bench to rest. Leonard went into battle with an injury, and the pain was so painful that it was even a problem to bend down to grab the ball, and his activities were extremely slow, and his combat effectiveness was sharply reduced. The Clippers scored 18 points in the quarter, while the Mavericks scored 36 points to take a 54-41 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, both teams continued to defend tightly and struggled to score. However, the Clippers' Big Three finally had a brief connection, Harden sent a wonderful pass after a steal in the backcourt, George advanced to the three-second zone with the ball and sent an open catch, and Leonard dunked. This wave of 4 points was played beautifully, and it directly stopped the Lone Ranger. However, Harden didn't play much in this quarter, he made Kleber foul at the end of the quarter, and hit two of three free throws, but Irving then forced a 2+1 to win, and at the end of the third quarter, the Clippers still trailed 67-78.
At the start of the final quarter, George picked up a fifth foul and Tyronn Lue had to replace him. Harden didn't give up and continued to work hard, hitting his fifth three-pointer of the game two minutes into the quarter. In the middle of the quarter, Doncic was fouled by Wei Shao, and the two clashed fiercely, resulting in Wei Shao being ejected from the game after eating two technical fouls in a row. Despite Harden's efforts to score, the Clippers trailed by 15 points with four minutes left in the final quarter. Irving showed a heroic performance in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers were unable to close the gap, and with 2:44 left in the final game, the Clippers withdrew all their starters and conceded defeat.
In terms of statistics, Harden shot 7-of-13 in this game, including 5-of-7 three-pointers, and scored 21 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, while George was plagued by fouls, 3-of-10, scoring only 7 points, and Xiaoka was affected by injury, shooting 4-of-7 and scoring 9 points. Not only did Harden surpass Magic Johnson in personal scoring to move up to 16th on the NBA's all-time playoff scoring list, but he also surpassed Nowitzki in playoff free throws to move up to 9th all-time.
Despite Harden's impressive performance, the Clippers' overall performance was slightly lacking, especially with injuries and fouls to George and Kawhi Leonard. This game was not only Harden's personal milestone night, but also exposed a lot of problems for the Clippers in the playoffs. What adjustments the Clippers need to make in future games is really worth looking forward to.