Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
On May 4, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs ushered in the focus of the West, and the Los Angeles Clippers went to Dallas to challenge the Mavericks away. At present, the two teams have a score of 2-3, and the Mavericks defeated the Clippers by 30 points in the battle of Tianwang Mountain and easily won the home court advantage. Without Leonard's leadership, Harden and George played perfectly in the first four games of the series, but at the same time, they struggled very well in the G5 game, and the two combined for 22 points, which also lost the most crucial game. In contrast, Doncic and Irving on the Mavericks' side played well in the crucial battle of Tianwang Mountain, scoring 49 points together and leading the team to victory. Before the game, the American media ESPN gave a prediction for the winning rate of this game: the Mavericks have a winning rate of 73.0%, and the Clippers have a 27.0% winning rate.
Obviously, the outside world is generally optimistic that the Mavericks will completely end this round of the series in the G6 battle and send the Clippers home. According to the data listed by the American media B/R, in the history of the NBA, in the case of a 2-2 draw, the probability of the team that wins Tianwang Mountain is as high as 81.7% (188 wins-42 losses). However, this is not the first time this has happened to this Clippers team, in the second season after Leonard and George teamed up, that is, in the 2020-21 playoffs, they also met the Mavericks in the first round, and they were also 2-3 down at the time, but under the leadership of the Cacho twins, they finally completed the comeback and successfully advanced to the second round. Now, the Clippers are in the same situation again, this time with Harden and George leading the team, and Leonard announced before the game that he will continue to be sidelined due to injury.
In terms of injuries, Hardaway Jr. and Prosper continue to be absent on the Mavericks' side, and the starting lineup is: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Jones Jr., PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford on the Clippers side, Leonard is absent for the game, Tyronn Lue temporarily changes the lineup, and the starting five are: Harden, Mann, George, PJ Tucker, Zubac.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Doncic continued the hot feeling of the last game, opened Zubac to hit the board at the beginning, Harden broke through Irving and caused a foul, two free throws, Tucker's bottom corner was completely empty, the three-point shot was in the first shot, Gafford and Jones grabbed 4 offensive rebounds in one round, and scored a rebound, Doncic faced Harden and stepped back to make a jumper, George couldn't score, Tucker actively fought for the frontcourt rebound, Zubac forced the basket and caused Gafford to foul for the second time. Washington hit a three-pointer from a big open position, and the Mavericks led to 10 points and stopped the Clippers directly. After the timeout, Harden dealt cards at the top of the arc, George cut the ball to complete the two-handed dunk, then broke through to the inside, scored with a difficult throw, and then assisted George to hit a three-pointer again, and the Clippers played a 10-0 offensive climax to tie the score. Doncic assisted Levery on an empty dunk, and then broke through to Plumlee to make it 2+1, and after the first quarter, the Mavericks reopened the 8-point gap at 34-26.
It is worth mentioning that after the first quarter, Harden's playoff assists came to 1,049, creating an NBA miracle again, ushering in a personal milestone, surpassing the Bulls' famous Pippen and rising to the tenth place in playoff history. Coming back in the second quarter, Kleber jumped from the free throw line to dunk Coffey, accidentally made a foul, fell to the ground hard, and his expression was very painful, Jones assisted Washington to hit a three-pointer, and the Mavericks led to 12 points. Powell and George hit two shots in a row, and then drew Irving's second foul. Moreover, the Mavericks officially confirmed that Kleber sprained his right shoulder and will not return for this game. Harden's jump shot caused Jones to foul, the Mavericks failed to challenge, Powell connected the line to break through and hit the inside throwing and scored, after Harden stealed, the pass Manman counterattacked and scored a layup, and then followed by a steal Gafford counterattacked and scored a layup, helping the Clippers to play a 17-2 offensive climax to overtake the score, the first lead of the game, halftime, the Clippers and the Mavericks fought to a 52-52 tie.
Halftime statistics, Clippers Harden was 2 of 8, got 9 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, George was 5 of 12, got 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Zubac 11 points and 9 rebounds, Powell 10 points and 2 rebounds, Wei Shao scored 0 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist on 0 of 3 shots, and on the Mavericks side, Doncic was 5 of 15 and 0 of 7 three-pointers and got 18 points, 2 rebounds and 7 assists, Irving was 1 of 6 and got 2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, and Washington had 11 points and 2 rebounds.
Yibian fought again, Doncic hit a three-point shot at the top of the arc against Harden, Irving also made a three-point stop in the counterattack, and the Mavericks opened 8-0 and directly stopped the Clippers. After the timeout, George faced Jones' defense and hit a pull-up jumper to help the Clippers break the scoring drought, and Gafford forced Zubac to open up and pull up a violent dunk Zubac to make it 2+1, Harden made an emergency stop to meet Irving's shot steadily, Irving assisted Doncic to make an easy layup, Harden did not score three consecutive points, Doncic converted to Tucker and hit a small throw, the Mavericks re-established an 11-point lead, Irving fell to the ground to grab the ball, and after the scrum was successful, he directly pulled out a three-point shot, Mann continued to hit a three-point shot, and after the third quarter, the Mavericks led 87-72 to 15 points.
Harden has already made three steals in the third quarter, and so far, the total number of steals in the playoffs in his career has reached 274, ranking 14th all-time, and creating two personal milestones in one game, which can be regarded as a windfall.
In the fourth quarter, Irving faced Coffey to defend three points, and then scored a difficult drift jumper, Jones looked back at the moon and made a layup, and the Mavericks led to 20 points and directly stopped the Clippers. After the pause, Tyronn Lue directly changed to a five-small lineup, Coffey scored a rebound, Doncic scored a layup against Powell and Kofei, and then assisted Jones to score a dunk in the counterattack, Irving juggled the dribble and played Tucker to shoot in the middle of the shot, and then the bottom corner drift limit was 3+1, George was replaced in advance, and the Clippers were about to surrender. Coach Lu used a late hack to cut Lively, who withstood the pressure and made three of four free throws, leaving the Clippers with no chance to turn around. In the end, the Clippers had no miracles, and were eliminated by the Mavericks with a big score of 2-4.
In terms of data, on the Clippers side, Harden shot 5 of 16 and got 16 points, 7 rebounds, 13 assists and 2 steals, Paul George shot 6 of 18 and got 18 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, Zubac contributed 17 points and 11 rebounds, Tucker got 8 points and 2 rebounds, Wei Shao contributed 6 points and 1 rebound, and on the Mavericks side, Doncic shot 9 of 26 and bombarded 28 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists, and Irving exploded in the second half, cutting 30 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, with a plus/minus of +22, offensive and defensive, PJ Washington 14 points and 5 rebounds, Jones Jr. 6 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block, Lively II 10 points and 9 rebounds, Gafford contributed 13 points and 6 rebounds, Green 7 points and 4 rebounds.