The Los Angeles Clippers fell to the Dallas Mavericks 127-121 on Tuesday night.
In the process not only did LA fully lose homecourt advantage in the first round series, they also lost any semblance of a mental edge they may initially have had over a team they beat last year.
One of the more interesting side plots leading into this particular series was the Clippers’ pretty blatant tanking to secure this specific match-up. It got so bad that even head coach Ty Lue had to address the matter.
On Tuesday night, Doncic delved into that topic head on.
“I didn’t even know they were doing that until somebody told me in the first game,” Doncic said of the tanking, per Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News.
Then Doncic dropped the hammer on Kawhi Leonard and Co.
“If you want to win a championship, at the end of the day you’ve got to win against everybody,” he continued. “So I don’t think that makes a big statement. We just go out there and play.”
Over the span of two games Doncic has recorded 70 points with 17 rebounds and 18 assists. He has absolutely destroying the Clippers, and it doesn’t look like they can do anything to stop him.
It is becoming abundantly clear Dallas is growing increasingly confident as this series progresses. The fact that the Mavericks started trash talking LA after Game 1 was telling – and Doncic’s most recent comments simply reaffirm that point.
Barring something crazy happening over the next week, the Clippers are seemingly headed for their second consecutive early exit from the playoffs.
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