In the playoffs, the game slows down. It gets more physical. Defensive battles emerge as teams get game after game to try and stifle the same offensive attack from their opponent. As we prepare for this series to continue with game 2 on Wednesday night, here are five takeaways from Clippers – Mavericks game 1. For the normal game 1 recap, check out Taylor Smith’s account of the game.
The rust is real
One of the Clippers’ biggest weaknesses right now is their lack of cohesion–they simply haven’t had their lineup together in the Orlando bubble. Ivica Zubac, Marcus Morris, and Landry Shamet all faced significant delays in their arrival, while Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell all left the bubble for personal reasons after losing people close to them.
Williams’ return to the court was delayed by an extended re-entry quarantine. Beverley made it back for the team’s first seeding game, but was on a minutes restriction and ultimately missed the final 5 games with a minor calf injury. Harrell didn’t play at all in the scrimmages or seeding games, and last night’s game 1 was his first NBA action since March. Landry Shamet missed the final two seeding games with a foot injury.
It’s been hard to get everyone on the same page, and it showed at times last night. Harrell was, expectedly and understandably, not his normal self. He deserves patience from the team and fans while he works his way back into a groove, both physically but also mentally as he mourns. Bev had 5 fouls and played just 20 minutes, making a number of uncharacteristic mistakes (while still being the team’s best guard by a wide margin).
We haven’t seen this team’s final form yet. Take that as you will–it means there’s room to improve, but limited time to figure things out.
Reggie Jackson can’t stay in the rotation
I had some high (ok, moderate) hopes for Reggie Jackson after his impressive 9 regular-season games for the Clippers–including thinking that he was going to be a regular part of the Clippers’ 9-man playoff rotation.
No longer.
Jackson has been miserable in the bubble, and put forth another dud in game 1. In 16 minutes, he was 0-5 on the floor, and truly awful defensively. Dallas picked on him and exposed him over, and over, and over. He was a clear level worse on defense than Lou Williams, and has nowhere near the offensive potency to offset it in the way Lou does. When the two played together–particularly in tandem with Landry Shamet, who hasn’t been good on defense this year and is playing as an undersized small forward in these lineups–the Clippers hemorrhaged points.
Against a Dallas Mavericks team that features the most efficient regular-season offense in NBA history, opening the floodgates when the second unit comes on the floor can kill any positive momentum built by the starters. The Clippers absolutely need to stop playing all-bench lineups, and it’s time for Reggie Jackson to shift into a spot minutes role instead of being a rotation fixture. Frankly, you don’t need to go 10-deep in the playoffs, but if Rivers is committed to it I would rather see Rodney McGruder, who is a more willing defender than Jackson and, somehow, a significantly better decision-maker on offense.
Luka was ready… Kristaps was not
One of the more exciting sub-plots heading into game 1 was that Dallas’ two young stars were each making their first-ever NBA Playoff appearance. Luka is in his sophomore campaign, and Porzingis has had to deal with some early-career tragedies, such as injuries and being on the Knicks.
Doncic, to nobody’s surprise, was ready for the moment. After some nerves in the early-going, where the Clippers forced a bunch of turnovers, Luka came alive. His 42 points last night are the most ever by an NBA player in their Playoffs debut. The 11 turnovers weren’t pretty, but it’s an occupational hazard when you’re the only offensive creator playing against an elite defense.
To be fair, though, this wasn’t the biggest game of Luka’s career. While only 21 years old, he became the youngest professional player in Real Madrid history at 16 and played in EuroLeague (a prestigious tournament featuring top teams from different countries across Europe) at that age. The year before he came to the NBA, he led Real Madrid to a EuroLeague championship and won MVP. First NBA playoff game? Sure. First big game? Nah.
Kristaps also had a European career before coming to the NBA, but didn’t approach Luka’s individual or team success. After a bad foul call against him in the second quarter on a play where he had cleanly blocked Paul George, Porzingis’ emotions got the best of him as he punched the air in frustration with the missed call. Personally, I think an air punch being an automatic tech is a rather absurd rule–but it’s a known rule. Kristaps himself had shot a technical foul free throw in the first quarter when Paul George was t’ed up for the same transgression.
The third quarter was where the truly baffling decision came: with Marcus Morris and Luka Doncic mildly exchanging words following some contact, Porzingis emerged out of nowhere to escalate the tension during a dead ball, shoving Morris. It was weak shove, but a pretty shocking decision by Kristaps. There is no question that entering a situation where two guys were only talking and turning it physical is always going to get a tech. Two techs means he’s ejected. Those are simply the rules of the game. Anyone who suggests otherwise simply wants preferential treatment for a star.
It’s up to Porzingis, as a star player whose team depends upon him, to make a better decision in that moment. His emotions got the best of him–twice–and as a result he was removed from the game and let his team down. It was a playoff rookie moment, and it appears he learned his lesson, commenting after the game that “I just gotta be smarter and control my emotions… I can guarantee that this won’t happen to me again… I just gotta learn from this and move forward.” I’m inclined to believe him, meaning the Clippers won’t catch a break like this again this series.
Stop helping off of shooters
Dallas’ record-setting offense is built around Luka Doncic driving into open lanes and finishing at a high rate around the basket, as well as kicking out to shooters. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship between Luka and Dallas’ shooters: they keep the lane open for his drives, and his drives attract attention that help them get open. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a truly amazing passer, too.
The Clippers went through stretches last night where they were able to successfully switch everything and use one of their big-bodied wing defenders–Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, or Marcus Morris–to play Luka straight up on his drives. That allowed the rest of LA’s defenders to stay home on the Mavs’ shooters.
It didn’t work all game, though. Due to a mixture of weird lineups and over-switching from LAC, Doncic was at times able to relatively easily maneuver into favorable match-ups, forcing other Clipper defenders to help on his drives and creating good looks for his shooters. Particularly potent was Seth Curry, who made four of his eight looks from deep off of the Mavs’ bench.
Dallas is comfortable taking 40+ 3PA–they did it in two-thirds of their regular-season games. The Mavs shot a little below their season average in game 1, and if the Clippers can’t stay home and limit Dallas’ 3PA in upcoming games, eventually they’ll get hot. The Mavs were 15-3 in the 18 games where they made 18 or more threes this season. They’re hard to beat on those nights.
Dallas lacks big depth
Ok, this isn’t so much a takeaway from game 1 as something that we were looking for coming into the series and learned a bit more about last night. With Dwight Powell injured and Willie Cauley-Stein opting out of the bubble, the Mavs simply do not have a lot of options down low. Left to his own devices, Rick Carlisle would probably like to start Kristaps Porzingis at center and bring Maxi Kleber off the bench, playing backup 5 as well as some 4 in 2-big sets.
Against the Clippers, using Kleber as a backup is a luxury the Mavs can’t afford. He’s their best defender against Kawhi Leonard, and if Dallas starts Curry and Tim Hardaway, Jr. together, one of those guys is gonna need to defend either Kawhi or Paul George. That’s not a good look for Dallas.
Kleber playing a lot of power forward minutes leaves the Mavs with limited options to back up Porzingis as well as limited options to provide Maxi rest and match up with the Clippers’ big, high-scoring forwards. At center, the only option on the roster is Boban Marjanovic, who played 13 minutes in game 1. For a defensive forward, Carlisle turned to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for 8 minutes.
Neither player is a capable floor-spacer, which has the potential to mess with Dallas’ offensive efficiency (ignore MKG’s two made threes in game 1–we’ve got a career’s worth of data that outweighs a couple of shots). If the Mavs go small with Kleber at center, the Clippers should punish their lack of interior strength with Ivica Zubac (seriously, Doc, play Zu). Against Boban, Doc should go to JaMychal Green–the 7’4″ giant’s length can stymie interior scorers like Montrezl Harrell, but Marjanovic is imply far too slow to defend a pick-and-pop with a guy like Green.
The Clippers let Dallas get away with Boban’s minutes in game 1 (he was actually a +5), and MKG bailed himself out with a couple of unlikely threes. Those two are guys LAC should exploit in the games to come.
There you have it–five important takeaways from Clippers – Mavericks game 1. For more coverage of game 1, check out The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast‘s postgame reaction episode.
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