Our coverage of the 2020 Clippers playoff run (hopefully with a championship finish) starts out with this preview of game one against the Mavericks in the first round.
Game Information
Where: The Bubble. Where else?
When: Monday, August 17, 6pm PT
How to Watch: ESPN, Prime Ticket
Starting Lineups
Clippers: Patrick Beverley, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Marcus Morris, Ivica Zubac
Mavs: Luka Doncic, Seth Curry, Tim Hardaway Jr., Dorian Finney-Smith, Kristaps Porzingis
Injuries
Clippers: Landry Shamet (Questionable), Montrezl Harrell (Questionable), Patrick Beverley (Questionable)
Mavs: Jalen Brunson (Out), Dwight Powell (Out), Courtney Lee (Out), Willie Cauley-Stein (Out)
The Big Picture
So, this is it. After over a year, we’ll finally get our first taste of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the playoffs together. This obviously isn’t the precise scenario the Clippers’ front office was envisioning when they struck gold last summer, but it’s close enough.
Obviously, the Clips have some question marks right off the bat. Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, and Landry Shamet are all questionable for this one. Harrell is expected to be cleared of his quarantine and eligible to suit up for the first time in the bubble on Monday, but Doc Rivers didn’t sound optimistic that he’d be thrown right into the fire.
Shamet is dealing with a foot issue, while Bev has a calf problem. The Clippers have enough depth and overall quality to get past the Mavericks in the first round even if some of these guys are sidelined, but it’s obviously a suboptimal way to start your playoff run.
The Antagonist
The Mavericks have put together one of the most potent offenses in NBA history this season. Dallas averaged 113.7 points per 100 possessions during the regular season, which is a number comparable to what the Warriors were doing during their dynastic run.
The focal points are, of course, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. The Clippers have enough wing defenders to throw a capable defender at Luka every time down the floor, but he still managed to average 29-7-7 across 3 regular-season showdowns with LAC.
LA did a fine job limiting Porzingis during the season, as the big Latvian averaged just 18.3 points on 34.7% shooting from the floor against the Clippers.
Dallas didn’t take the seeding games overly seriously, though it has to be somewhat concerning for Rick Carlisle that they went just 3-5 in the run-up to the playoffs. This is the first-ever playoff appearance for the Mavs with their new young core, and it’s the first time the franchise has been here since 2015-16.
Frankly, the Mavs have major “just happy to be here” vibes following a 3-year playoff drought. Their offense may keep them competitive, but it would be something of a surprise if the Mavs extended this series too much.
Notes
Playoff Reggie?: Missing Patrick Beverley would obviously suck big time, especially considering his absence likely means we get Reggie Jackson in the starting lineup. I really don’t think the downgrade will make a huge difference in this particular matchup, especially as long as Jackson is able to hit his open looks. He’s hit over 41% of his triples since coming to the Clippers. That’ll do.
Points Will Be Scored: Dallas can put points on the board, but they’re also quite terrible at preventing them. The Mavs allowed at least 120 points in 5 of their 8 seeding games, including 126 to the Clippers. LAC quietly finished second in the league in offensive rating themselves. Other than Dorian Finney-Smith, Rick Carlisle’s rotation is chock-full of dreadful individual perimeter defenders. DFS obviously can’t guard Kawhi and PG at the same time, and I’d be surprised if LAC didn’t make a point of exploiting their matchup advantages throughout the series.
Zubac? The Mavs are pretty big. The 7’3″ Porzingis towers over any Clipper, and Maxi Kleber and old friend Boban Marjanovic are going to get burn off the bench. Doc Rivers’ deep bench gives him enough bodies to match-up with essentially anyone he wants, but trying to match Dallas’ size could mean Ivica Zubac gets more run than usual. Zubac did average around 25 minutes in the seeding games, but Harrell’s absence surely had plenty to do with that. I wouldn’t be shocked if we got a little more Zu than usual to begin this series, while Joakim Noah could be dusted off to give LAC’s bench more size, as well.
213Hoops: Need to get your Clippers fix while waiting for the game to start? Check out some of our excellent content previewing this series–including Lucas Hann’s series preview, a special episode of The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast with The Athletic’s Dallas Mavericks beat writer, Tim Cato, and our staff’s prediction roundtable!
Game Thread: Looking for a place to chat live about Clippers – Mavericks Game 1 while you watch? Look no further–the 213Hoops community will be reacting to and discussing the game live in the comments of this post.
Well, that does it for the game one preview of this exciting first round series pitting the young Mavericks against the veteran Clippers. Leave your comments on the game (and other playoff series) below!
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