The season for the Clippers is officially over.
In the first round of G6, the Clippers lost to the Mavericks 101-114 away, and the big score was 2-4.
In this game, the Clippers fell behind almost the whole time, and the Mavericks twice widened the difference to 10 points in the first half, but they chased it back both times, and the defeat point was in the third quarter, the Clippers completely collapsed 20-35 in a single quarter, and the difference in the fourth quarter once reached 26 points.
Although there were 3 minutes left, the Clippers once chased the difference to 13 points, but the time was limited, and the Clippers could respond every time they scored, and finally before 1 minute left, the Clippers withdrew their main force and announced their surrender.
Let's start with the Mavericks, the Eastern European duo is still excellent.
Doncic played 43 minutes, shooting 9-of-26, 1-of-10 three-pointers, 9-of-11 free throws, and scored 28 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists.
But Doncic's passing is really sharp, even if he can't drive, he can find teammates, and he has at least 3 assists per quarter in this game, which is much more stable than scoring.
In this series, Doncic made 16 of 67 three-pointers, shooting only 24%, and was plagued by a knee injury, and his breakthrough was not as smooth as before, which may become a big hidden danger for the Mavericks in the future.
The best performance of the Mavericks in this game was Irving, who played a total of 11 of 19, 5 of 9 three-pointers, 3 of 5 free throws, 30 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, and also had 2 steals and 2 blocks.
In the first half, Irving scored only 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting, but in the second half, Irving scored 28 points alone;
He scored 13 points in the third quarter to lead the team to a climax, and in the fourth quarter, he scored 15 points in a single quarter to completely extinguish the Clippers' hopes of counterattacking, note that Irving's plus/minus in the field was +22, the highest on the team.
In this series, the reason why the Mavericks were able to win with Doncic's efficiency was because of Irving, who averaged 26.5 points per game, with a three-point shooting rate of 51.4%/44.9%/85.2% and a true shooting rate of 64.7%.
As we've said before, the Eastern European duo has been playing well in this series, even if one pulls small, the other can make up for it, and the Mavericks can win more depending on the role players, and this game is no different.
In the last game, Kleber broke out, scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 three-pointers, and left the game early with an injury, and then G5 sluggish Washington made 4 of 8 three-pointers and scored 14 points;
In addition, Lively II and Gafford combined for 23 points and 15 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting, once again blowing up the Clippers' interior line.
In the next round, the Mavericks will face the young Thunder, who are very close to each other after the trade deadline and are likely to have a series of at least six games in one round.
But the Thunder aren't like the Clippers without Leonard, the Mavericks want to win, Doncic has to get his touch back, and one or two role players may not be enough to break out, they have to be at their best.
Let's talk about the Clippers, another season is over.
In the battle of life and death, George was ghostly, shooting 6 of 18 from the field, 2 of 10 from three-point range, only 18 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, and his plus/minus was -19, the lowest in the game.
In this round of the series, George played normally in the first two games, one god in the last four games, and three ghost games, with an average of only 19.5 points per game in the series, and a true shooting rate of 55.2%, which definitely did not meet expectations.
Harden didn't have a good offensive game either, shooting 5-of-16 from the field and 0-of-6 from three-point range, scoring just 16 points, but Harden dished out 13 assists and only had one turnover.
In the series, Harden's final stats were fixed at 21.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists, with a three-point shooting rate of 44.9%/38.3%/90.6% and a true shooting rate of 61.6%.
Harden is still the best player in the Clippers' series this round, but objectively speaking, the superstar quality cannot be compared with Doncic and Irving on the opposite side, and his ability has declined greatly, and he can't get rid of defenders when he breaks through, and his explosiveness is too far from his peak.
How should we evaluate Harden this year?
He applied for a trade from Philadelphia to the Clippers, just joined the losing streak, and then quickly hit a winning streak and rushed all the way to the first place in the West, and at the time he felt that this year might really be Harden's championship year.
As a result, near the end of the season, Leonard was injured, and it was difficult for any team to go far without a leading star, even Jokic, without Murray, he never made it to the Western Conference finals, in a sense, Harden is really back.
Zoom in to the past few years, Harden's back is also visible to the naked eye, the peak years met the universe Yong, went to the Nets for two months, and as a result, the Duoha combination did not play a few games, went to the 76ers to meet Embiid, and was played by Mogou, went to the Clippers to be the third master, the data dropped sharply, and Leonard was injured in the playoffs.
However, it seems that no one else is to blame for this back, after all, Harden has chosen several times by himself, and this summer, Harden will become a free agent, and his choice may determine whether he can win a championship as a core player.
For the Clippers, this year's result is clearly disappointing.
Or we could say that the Clippers of the last five years have been a mixture of disappointment, since the formation of the Cayenne combination:
- In 2020, he led the Nuggets 3-1 in the second round, but the result was reversed
- In 2021, Leonard was injured in the second round, and the West lost to the Suns
- In 2022, Leonard was reimbursed and did not make the playoffs
- In 2023, Leonard was injured and lost to the Suns in the first round
- In 2024, Leonard is injured and loses to the Mavericks in the first round
See what the problem is? Yes, Leonard is injured.
In this round of the series, Harden and George are indeed not stable enough, and Tyronn Lue's employment is indeed up for debate, but no one should deny that the biggest defeat of the Clippers is Leonard's injury.
I still remember the vigorous summer of 2019, FMVP Leonard and MVP No. 3 George teamed up to do something big, but five years later, the Clippers only went to the West finals once at most, and only 2 times in the second round.
You say they're unlucky, it's true that it's because of injuries, but, even if it's an injury, the Clippers have been injured every year for so many years - don't forget, endurance is also a skill, and it's the most basic and important ability.
Because of this, many fans believe that the Clippers should dismantle the team, however, the situation seems to be different from what fans think.
According to the latest reports from TA Clippers reporters Sam Amick and Law Murray, Ballmer is willing to continue to spend money to keep all the core, which means that the Clippers will still be the core of Pepperden next season as long as Harden and George are willing.
However, Wei Shao's future is uncertain.
Wei Shao played very badly in this series, averaging 6.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, shooting 26% from the field, 23.5% from three-point range, and 34.1% from the field.
However, Wei Shao's average playing time is only 19 minutes per game, and he can't play at critical moments, and he still gets the veteran's basic salary.
According to the Clippers, the 35-year-old gave up the starting point guard spot to Harden in mid-November, when it was President Frank who persuaded him to take on the sixth man role, but Willow repeatedly said he could do more.
With a 4 million player option in his hands in the offseason, will he continue to play a limited role with the veteran's base salary, or will he look elsewhere for a better opportunity?
For Wei Shao, leaving is not necessarily a bad thing, the point is to make good choices.
And for the Clippers, after the disappointment of the past few years, can the veteran core of Harden, George, and Leonard continue to compete for the championship?
Think about the Clippers, who were the first in the West in the middle of the season, I really thought they could win the championship, and then look at the Clippers who are out of the first round now, hey, this team, it's like this every year, Ballmer is still insisting, sure enough, it's good to have money.