Gamblers should just avoid the Dallas Mavericks-LA Clippers series | Opinion
Imagine what Luka Doncic would have done had his neck not hurt.
Despite playing with a strained neck, Doncic carried the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night into the fourth quarter before his team collapsed, and then the teammates who ghosted him for so long actually carried him.
After losing the last two games at home by double digits, the Mavericks returned to their happiest place on earth, Staples Center, and defeated the LA Clippers 105-100 in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Doncic scored 42 points with 14 assists and eight rebounds. That line has only been done once before in the playoffs, by LeBron James in 2018.
The Mavs now lead the series 3-2, with their greatest obstacle ahead. The series returns to Dallas for Game 6 on Friday night at the palace of doom, the American Airlines Center.
The home team has lost every game in this series.
The last time an NBA series has featured the first five games won by the road team was in 1995 with the Rockets and Spurs.
“This is going to come down to the first team that wins at home,” Tim Hardaway Jr. said after the game.
Whatever you think should happen between the Mavericks and Clippers has not. On Wednesday night, the Clippers were 7-point favorites.
Gamblers, just avoid this series. The rest of us should stop predicting what will happen other than the tip times.
This has been a highly entertaining series with brilliant performances, coaching adjustments, good guys, villains, punks and ghosts.
After losing the last two games at home with what amounted to seven straight embarrassing quarters of basketball, Doncic personally decided to stop that string.
To alter the Clippers’ red carpet path at the basket, Mavericks went not big, but Frankenstein big.
Coach Rick Carlisle started 7-foot-4 Boban Marjanović at center, 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis at power forward and 6-foot-8 Luka Doncic at point forward.
The smallest starter was Tim Hardaway Jr., a bite-sized 6-foot-6.
The Mavs went to a zone defense, Boban was effective, and Doncic was brilliant as he personally had a hand in 26 of the Mavs’ first 30 baskets until two minutes remained in the third quarter.
“I guess his neck, collar area feels great now,” Hardaway Jr. said.
For much of the night, his teammates were not great.
The Mavs didn’t have their second double-digit scorer until Hardaway Jr. cracked that mythical mark until late in the third quarter.
The Mavs built a 16-point lead early in the fourth quarter, and then decided to just stop scoring.
Luka was exhausted, and his teammates couldn’t make a shot. For most of the fourth quarter, the Mavs had scored but six points.
Doncic ended up shooting 37 times, and made 17.
“It was too much. I shot some shots I should not have shot,” Doncic said. “I missed some layups.”
Yeah. That was the problem.
The irony is the teammates who were so bad for much of the night closed it out for Luka.
With under three minutes remaining, Hardaway Jr. and then Porzingis hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to push the lead to 10.
Carlisle called the Porzingis three the biggest shot of the season.
Of course, the Clippers had a chance to tie it with five seconds remaining but their best player - Kawhi Leonard - tossed up an air ball.
It’s consistent with how this series has played out.
Now the problem is the Mavericks have to come home.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
