This time of year is what all NBA fans glamor for, the 16 best teams getting the opportunity to compete in the playoffs and a chance at championship. That’s exactly what the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks will do Sunday afternoon in the 1st round. This will be the third time these two teams will meet at this time of year in the last five seasons. LA beat them in both instances (2019-20, 2020-21) and won the season series 2-1, so why will this time around be any different?
Well both teams look completely different.
The train for LA has kept rolling with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George at the helm, and Dallas is still led by a now 25-year old Luka Doncic.
LA Led by Vets
Along with Leonard and George they brought back former former MVP (2017) Russell Westbrook and discovered it was not enough early into the season. So, they went all in for yet another Los Angeles native and also former MVP (2018), James Harden, who was now on his third team in four years. James being here helped make everyone else’s around him jobs much easier when it came to scoring. George shot 41% from 3-pt for the year and 90% from the free throw line while playing in the highest number of games in a season in his entire career since the trade to LA in 2019.
It took five straight losses (sixth overall) for head coach Ty Lue to sort out his rotation then Westbrook approached him and the coaching staff suggesting that it would suit this team better moving forward if he came off the bench and let Harden be the primary decision maker. From mid-November to early February — half the season, really — LA posted the league’s best record (31-8) and offensive rating (122.3 points per 100 possessions).
New Look Mavs
This Dallas team led by Doncic will get his first opportunity to compete in the playoffs alongside Kyrie Irving who knows what it takes to win a championship, after winning one back in 2016 with Cleveland. They failed to make the playoffs last season after acquiring Irving before the trade deadline last season. This team finished 7th in PPG (117.9) and Irving and Doncic combined to average more than half of those (59.5) shows what those two have been able to do after a full training camp before the season.
Going into the season Mavs owner Mark Cuban and head coach Jason Kidd must have known the way they were constructed to begin the season wasn’t good enough to contend for it all. So they moved quickly before February’s trade deadline by acquiring PJ Washington (Charlotte) and Daniel Gafford (Washington) and it has unlocked potential for this team. They won 16 of their final 17 games when both Irving and Doncic played.
The health of Kawhi Leonard
Coach Lue gave the media the latest injury update on Leonard and his availability and it was optimistic for the start of Game 1. Leonard missed the final eight games of the regular season as he tried to nurse his knee to allow him a chance at the playoffs. George, said before Saturday’s practice, “I do think at some point he’ll be with us.”
Lue was asked for some clarity on the inflammation in Leonard’s right knee because George’s comments made it sound as if the Clippers’ best player would miss the opener of the best-of-seven first-round series.
“We don’t know yet,” Lue said. “Yeah, we don’t know yet, but you got to prepare both ways. So, we’re not sure and the guys are ready. We’re ready to get going and so you just got to prepare for everything.”
Officially, Lue said, Leonard will be listed as questionable..
Coach Lue did say Leonard went through some shooting drills Friday on the team’s off day from practice and that the plan was for him to shoot again Saturday.
“Today, he’ll be able to do more with a little bit more movement and he’s going to go through some of the practice as well,” Lue said. “So, we’ll see after today how he feels.”
Trying to beat this revamped Dallas team in a seven game series without Leonard would be a tall task for LA.
LA defending Luka
LA will have to try to slow down the leading scorer in the NBA this season in Doncic (33.9/ppg) along with Irving (25.6/ppg). LA’s Terance Mann said on Tuesday at their first preparations ahead of this match-up, “No, it’s not fun” on playing against Luka.
“We understand what he is capable of doing. As long as you’re making him work (because) he’s going to make tough shots. Whether it;s Kawhi, PG, that’s what he does,” coach Lue on Doncic. “You got to pick your poison. I think you got to just give him different looks to try to keep him off-balance. But he’s too great to give him a steady diet, the same thing over and over again, and so you got to mix up your coverages. You got to do different things to try to keep him off-balance.”
LA’s Mindset
LA hasn’t played their main rotation players in 11 days so staying locked in and sharp has been coach Ty Lue’s focus ahead of this series, regardless of who is out there.
“It’s been great,” when asked about the preparations for Dallas without possibly having a full roster. “We had a lot of days to prepare, guy’s understand what we are doing, and executing our coverages. We feel really good about our gameplan and how we want to execute it.”
George will be the focal point if Leonard is unable to go and he fully is aware of that.
“We’ve always known we’ve got enough to win regardless of who’s in and out. This is a very talented group. As of now, we’ve got enough to win.”
What the Clippers have done now, extending an active league-leading streak of winning seasons to 13 this year, started with Blake Griffin’s era. But, now this era led by Leonard and George, this championship window, is closing and this postseason is a point of reckoning. This is the last best chance for the Clippers to make something happen with uncertainty surrounding everyone but Leonard for the future.
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