Earlier in the day, Luka Doncic admitted that if this were the regular season, he would probably sit and rest – his knee was sore, he was coughing and congested. “It’s not good. It could be a lot better, but it is what it is,” was how he described the knee.
By all accounts, James Harden and Paul George were healthy for Game 5 in Los Angeles.
Watching the game, you would never know it.
Doncic scored 35 points with 10 assists and seven rebounds, dominating his minutes on the floor. Harden and George combined to shoot 6 of 25 (24%), including 3 of 13 from 3, for a total of 22 points.
Behind a terrible shooting night for all of the Clippers (except Ivica Zubac, who was 7 of 8), the Mavericks took complete control of the game in the third quarter and ran away with Game 5 to a roar, 123-93.
With the win, the Mavericks take a 3-2 series lead into Friday night’s Game 6 in Dallas.
Dallas picked up the pace in the second half of Game 4 and Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said maintaining that was vital to the decisive victory.
“I think just the result of Game 4,” Kidd said. “Just talking about it, watching. Being able to play with rhythm on the offensive end. Just trying to make it difficult and take the three out of the game and I thought the guys did a great job of contesting the three and then making some.”
“When it comes to pace, we want to play fast,” Mavericks center Daniel Gafford said. “It’s always rewarding for anyone in charge because you have Luka [Doncic]and Kyrie [Irving] trying to find you in transition. Or just open up space for them, whether they make a layup or a three in transition.
If this was the Clippers’ last home game crypto.com Arena (they move to the new Intuit Dome next fall), it was a terrible last impression – 30 points is the Clippers’ worst playoff loss in history.
“We just didn’t play well across the board. Defensively, offensively, we just didn’t play a good game, okay, turn the page, they still need to win four games,” Clippers coach Tyrone Lue said. “We know we can win on their home field, we’ve shown that in the last two playoff series.”
Dallas got 14 points from Kyrie Irving, but it wasn’t his night as he needed 14 shots to get there. Dallas had a nice bounce off its bench, with Maxi Kleber scoring 15 on 5-of-7 shooting and Dereck Lively scoring 12 on 5-of-5 shooting.
Dallas could use all of that in Game 6, but what it really needs is another dominant performance from Doncic.
