Overview
The Dallas Mavericks asked several questions in Game 2 for which the LA Clippers had few sufficient answers. How the Clippers respond to the Mavericks in Game 3 may set a direction for the remainder of the series, and beyond.
Game Information
Where: The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Orlando, FL
When: 6:00 PM PT
How to Watch: Fox Sports Prime Ticket, TNT, KEIB AM 1150
Projected Starting Lineups
Clippers: Reggie Jackson — Paul George — Kawhi Leonard — Marcus Morris Sr. — Ivica Zubac
Mavericks: Luka Doncic — Tim Hardaway Jr. — Dorian Finney-Smith — Kristaps Porzingis — Maxi Kleber
Injuries
Clippers: DOUBTFUL — Patrick Beverley (calf)
Mavericks: OUT — Willie Cauley-Stein (personal), OUT — Dwight Powell (Achilles), OUT — Jalen Brunson (shoulder), OUT — Courtney Lee (calf), PROBABLE — Kristaps Porzingis (heel), PROBABLE — Trey Burke (ankle)
The Big Picture
Was Game 2 a wake-up call for a slumbering giant or a harbinger of gloomier results to come?
Certainly, the Clippers did not put forth their best performance. (It probably didn’t crack their 25th percentile.) They shot less than 30% from distance. They turned the ball over 15 times but only assisted with it for that many plus one more. Their energy-level was decent, if inconsistent.
Their cohesion, however, very much was not. At times, the Clippers’ defense looked like a group of five strangers. Solving Sudoku. With sign language. In the dark. In a lion cage.
Some of that is to be expected. Doc Rivers is relying on lineups with minimal shared game-experience. Patrick Beverley is hobbled and may be out again. And some of that is the opponent, with its — you might’ve heard — historically efficient offense and cadre of shooters orbiting around a uniquely precocious star.
On paper, the Clippers should still win this series. Their best game should beat the other guys’ best game. In Game 2, their grand plans didn’t make it from the paper to the floor. For a critical Game 3 — OK, in a seven-game series, they’re all kinda critical — the Clippers will have to find a better method for transcription. Failure to do so will lead to unfriendlier words in an altogether different kind of paper.
The Antagonist
The seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks probably think they should be leading this series, 2-0. They may not be wrong — certainly, with or without the ejected Kristaps Porzingis in Game 1, a Dallas victory was within the realm of reasonable possibility.
Luka Doncic has been a delight. A wunderkind. A force of nature. A savant. Select nearly any term of admiration you like and it will probably fit. His first NBA postseason has been a record-setting one; literally, Luka’s two-game scoring debut ranks first in playoff history. He is neither scared nor overwhelmed.
We can expect (hope?) the Clippers to be better, but we should also prepare for the possibility of more from the Mavericks. Their series start has been good, but it’s been more B-plus or A-minus than ace-level. As Lucas pointed out in his five takeaways from Game 2, Dallas has shot the ball well, but not prolifically. Not relative to their own habits, at least. Even in the dry swelter of August, more rain can fall.
The Mavericks have thrown down the gauntlet. Shorthanded as they are — seriously, look at the injury list above — they’ve shown they can win it, both Game 3 and the series. It’s on the Clippers to respond.
Game Notes
The Lineup Puzzle: If you watched Game 2, or read about it, or listened to a podcast describing it, or even saw the box score and just thought a little about it, then you too have probably felt some consternation over Doc’s lineup choices. Perhaps you even threw something. Very simply, his choices aren’t working. And while Patrick Beverley’s injury-related absence has left a yawning gap at arguably the Clippers’ shallowest position, Doc has newspapered over it and shrugged as replacements fall through. If he can’t control how the Clippers shoot then he can control how they attempt to defend, and it probably means less Montrezl Harrell and (please, please, PLEASE) less Reggie Jackson, particularly in crunch-time.
Switching It Up: The Clippers are built to switch on defense. Their roster has been deliberately assembled to do it. Present are a number of players with similar size and agility and the hypothetical ability to trade assignments with another with every pick. And yet, Luka feasts. Luka, boy genius, sniffs out his preferred victim — it was Reggie Jackson in Game 2 — calls for a screen from his victim’s man, isolates his victim, and chows down. All of this happens with all-universe defenders Kawhi Leonard and Paul George attached to shooters a long-distance phone call away. Switching has its benefits — namely, it saves the legs for later. But the later is supposed to be the high-leverage late-game defensive possessions, the very same possessions during which we saw Luka mauling a flailing Reggie. Use the all-universe defenders. Let them check Luka in late-game situations. Allow Kawhi and Paul George to contort themselves around screens instead of handing off their assignments across them. Their greatest gifts as players shine at the defensive end. Don’t hide them in a corner.
Bench Trial: In a major upset, only two Clippers reserves (McGruder, Joakim Noah) finished with a positive plus-minus in Game 2. Both recorded a single minute, after the outcome had been decided. Seth Curry, who put in 26 minutes off the Dallas bench, finished plus-30. The Clippers’ depth players, one of the team’s great supposed advantages, are getting it handed to them. Worse, it’s often happening when Luka Doncic is off the floor. (See the end of Game 2’s third quarter and much of the fourth.) Some of this is the result of suboptimal lineup combinations. And some of it is just plain getting beaten by the other guy. The Clippers can shore up a lot of areas heading into Game 3 against a very good but certainly not dominant Mavericks team. The bench minutes seem like low-hanging fruit.
That’s it for the Game 3 preview of this tightly-fought Clippers vs Mavericks series. For more on Game 2, check out Lucas’ five takeaways or TLTJTP’s reaction podcast. Come back for more Game 3 content tonight and in the days to come.
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