Dallas Mavericks knock the Los Angeles Clippers out of the NBA playoffs.
Luka Doncic had 28 points and 13 assists, Kyrie Irving scored 28 of his 30 points in the second half, and the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 114-101 on Friday night, advancing to the second round of the playoffs. Doncic overcame another bad shooting night with his hurting right knee to do what the Slovenian superstar couldn’t three years ago: defeat the Clippers in Dallas in Game 6 of a first-round series.
The fifth-seeded Mavericks defeated the Clippers for the first time in three first-round appearances over the previous five seasons and will face the top seed, Oklahoma City, in the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday night.
Paul George scored 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers, who won the first two games of the series sans Kawhi Leonard but lacked scoring punch in the final two, when he was sidelined by right knee inflammation. James Harden scored 16 points and 13 assists, but he shot just 5 of 16 from the field and missed all six 3-pointers as Los Angeles was eliminated in the first round for the second straight season.
Irving, Doncic’s co-star added at the trade deadline last year for the kind of playoff run the Mavs want to just begin, gave Dallas its largest lead with a dazzling four-point play in which he sank a leaning 3-pointer while being shoved by P.J. Tucker and made the free throw for a 106-82 advantage. The Clippers responded with an 11-2 run to go within 13 points, but they never genuinely threatened a comeback in the dying minutes.
The Mavericks broke a 52-52 tie at halftime by outscoring the Clippers 35-20 in the third quarter — the same quarter that ignited the Game 5 win in Los Angeles for a chance to clinch — and increased their lead to 20 early in the fourth. Doncic, who has also contended with illness and a painful knee, began 0 of 7 from 3-point range, dropping below 25% for the series, but made his first shot of the second half to spark the third-quarter surge.
The NBA scoring champion shot 9 of 26 from the field and 1 of 10 from three, while converting 9 of 11 free throws. Irving was 10 for 13 from the field after halftime. The Clippers’ Norman Powell scored 20 points, while Ivica Zubac added 17 points and 11 rebounds. For the Mavericks, P.J. Washington scored 14 points on 4 of 8 3-pointers, and Daniel Gafford added 13 points on several dramatic shots down low.
Maxi Kleber of Dallas did not return after spraining his right shoulder on a blocking foul against Amir Coffey during a drive in the first minute of the second quarter. Kleber, whose 3-point shooting helped Dallas in the series, returned to shoot free throws, hitting one of two before exiting at the next dead ball.