Luka Doncic was destined to have a game this good

LOS ANGELES — From the second Luka Doncic declared for the NBA draft in 2018, this recreation was coming.

The sport when it grew to become clear he wasn’t only a nice expertise, however one who was prepared to guide a workforce to a win towards any opponent, in any playoff sequence, in any area.

Doncic has been nice all through this primary spherical playoff sequence towards the LA Clippers. However he was otherworldly Wednesday night time in main the Dallas Mavericks to a 105-100 win and a 3-2 sequence lead over the Clippers.

Enjoying with tape throughout his injured left shoulder, the third-year guard completed with a game-high 42 factors, 14 assists and eight rebounds. It was his fourth recreation of 40 or extra factors in 11 playoff video games, all of them towards the Clippers. And but, by some means this recreation was essentially the most spectacular of all of them.

“Luka Doncic is, he’s simply one of many hardest gamers I’ve ever seen, ever been round,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle stated. “He’s only a warrior-type man that occurs to be one of many best possible gamers on the earth. He’s the engine that drives our offense. There’s no secret there. However this can be a accountability that he covets. I imagine he views it as a privilege.”

The Clippers didn’t play as poorly Wednesday night time as that they had within the first two playoff losses at Staples Heart. If something, they made some good changes in comparison with how they defended the Mavericks beforehand, when Doncic additionally set a number of teammates up for profession video games. Tim Hardaway Jr. (20 factors) was the one different Mavericks participant to attain in double figures in Sport 5, however Doncic was so sensible he was capable of beat them himself.

“It’s huge video games,” Doncic stated. “You bought to play laborious. You bought to play with coronary heart. I don’t know what else to say.”

In all, Doncic scored or assisted on 31 of Dallas’ 37 made area objectives (84 p.c) on Wednesday. In response to the Elias Sports activities Bureau, Doncic is just the third participant in NBA historical past to attain or help on 80 p.c or extra of his workforce’s area objectives within the postseason.

Doncic scored 19 factors within the first quarter, together with all 5 of his 3-pointers. He scored or assisted on 28 of the Mavericks’ 35 factors within the quarter. Doncic was as much as 27 factors by halftime, his most in a half in his playoff profession.

The Clippers threw all the things that they had at Doncic. None of it mattered. He hit 4 of his first 5 pictures with Paul George defending him. Then Kawhi Leonard, a former Defensive Participant of the yr, hung out — and useful vitality — on him. Didn’t matter. Doncic had 40 factors towards eight completely different Clippers defenders by the top of the third quarter, as Dallas constructed a 14-point lead.

About the one time the Clippers had any success in stopping Doncic was within the fourth quarter — he scored simply two factors because the Clippers minimize the result in 101-100 with 39.5 seconds left on a 3-point-play by Kawhi Leonard.

However Los Angeles may get no nearer, as George dedicated two key turnovers and Leonard airballed a 3-pointer that might’ve tied the sport with 4.9 seconds remaining.

It was the strangest recreation of what’s simply the strangest sequence of those playoffs to this point. Neither the Clippers nor the Mavericks have received a house recreation. Dallas will attempt to shut issues out Friday at dwelling, however the way in which this sequence has gone, who is aware of?

In response to ESPN Stats and Info, that is the second best-of-7 sequence by which the street workforce has received the primary 5 video games. The final time this occurred was in 1995 in a Western Convention Last between the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets. No sequence has seen this occur within the first six video games of a sequence (excluding final yr’s Toronto Raptors-Boston Celtics second spherical sequence within the NBA Bubble, a impartial website).

Afterwards the Clippers sounded quite a bit like they did final week once they confronted withering criticism due to their poor play and expressions of confidence — or lack of concern — after dropping Video games 1 and a couple of at Staples Heart.

“I feel we’re high quality,” Lue stated. “We’ll see in two days. However, all people talked about it within the locker room, we’re good.”

These video games weren’t almost as aggressive as Wednesday night time’s thriller, when it appeared LA was on the precipice of an historic comeback. In response to ESPN Stats and Info, groups trailing by 10 or extra factors within the closing two minutes of the fourth quarter or time beyond regulation had been 0-1,154 over the past 25 postseasons getting into Wednesday’s recreation.

However the Clippers almost defied these odds. Reggie Jackson hit a 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining to chop Dallas’ result in 101-94. Then Markieff Morris hit a 3 with 1:20 remaining to make it 101-97. The nervous crowd of seven,428 at Staples Heart began warming up, roaring with perception — or possibly disbelief.

By the point Leonard transformed a layup and free throw with 39.5 seconds remaining to chop it to 101-100, the group was in a frenzy. “M-V-P” chants rang out.

Then the Clippers fell off a cliff.

Second-year guard Terance Mann stole the ball from Doncic, drove into the lane and made an ungainly move to Nicolas Batum, who rushed a shot on the rim, missed, bought the offensive rebound and missed once more.

Hardaway Jr. bought the rebound, was fouled by Morris, and hit each free throws. On the subsequent possession, Leonard may solely muster a fall-away 3-point try from the nook. It was almost the identical spot he nailed a good harder shot within the Toronto Raptors second-round playoff sequence win over the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019. That shot over the outstretched arms of Philadelphia 76ers heart Joel Embiid, bounced on the rim, then magically fell by means of the ring.

However there was no magic on this shot. It wasn’t even shut.

“I turned, felt him proper behind me, tried to pump-fade and simply was off-balance,” Leonard stated. “Obtained to do a greater job.”

Now the Clippers face their newest existential disaster, and about the most effective factor they’ve going for them is how effectively they responded to the final one every week in the past.

“We simply gotta take it one recreation at a time proper now,” Leonard stated. “Attempt to win Sport 6, and that’s the mindset. Simply come out able to battle.

“Yearly presents a special problem, and that is what’s in entrance of us proper now.”

Lue and his employees watched each minute of their losses to the Mavericks final week, then confirmed the workforce each terrible, embarrassing second. Not in order that they’d really feel badly about themselves for blowing dwelling courtroom benefit, however to appreciate what number of errors that they had made and will really do one thing about.

The Clippers largely corrected these errors in Video games 3 and 4 in Dallas over the weekend. A lot in order that the Mavericks opted to begin one of many tallest lineups in playoff historical past, with 7-foot-4 heart Boban Marjanovic becoming a member of 7-3 ahead Kristaps Porzingis, the 6-7 Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith and 6-5 Hardaway Jr. In response to Elias, just one different startling lineup in a playoff recreation since 1970-71 had a taller common peak than the Mavericks did on Wednesday.

Lue famous earlier than the sport that he anticipated the Mavericks would attempt to go huge, with Marjanovic rather than Maxi Kleber. The Clippers even ready for that alignment in follow.

However LA has spent 5 straight video games attempting to determine find out how to cease Doncic, and hasn’t figured it out but.

“That’s our man,” Hardaway Jr. stated of Doncic. “We’re going to do no matter we will to again him up in any scenario, at any given second. And the efficiency he had at the moment, it will have, it will have sucked if we didn’t come out with the victory.”