https://twitter.com/joeylinn_/status/1616613602630275073?cxt=HHwWgsC8vbTgru8sAAAA

On his first tour of duty in the game during the last two minutes of the 1st, Jackson immediately had a TO on his first handle. His first shot was an airball 3 during the first minute of the second quarter. But nice back to back 3s to end the half, those 3s were big government moments.
When the Mavs went to RJ with Dinwiddie on two consecutive plays (with the last being an and 1) in the 4th with Mavs rallying, Ty made a key rotation of subbing in a wing for RJ to stop the bleeding and the opposing momentum – something he did not do earlier in the season when teams were successfully targeting RJ’s D up to the end of the game since Ty, like Doc, usually stuck to his starters to end the game. Hope his coaching to win continues and prospers.

• Starting 5 was very flat to lifeless in Q1. Clips grabbed the lead after going to Powell in place of Mann and later Reggie who injected energy at both ends. Starting 5 was pretty much a disaster offensively in Q2, getting down by as many as -9 points and being unable to get a defensive rebound. The saving grace was that they did an ok job on Luka and he picked up 3 fouls before he had a chance to bury the Clips. A lot of this has to do with T-Mann not being assertive enough in attacking the rim and settling for jump shots, and PG also playing too much on the perimeter. Reggie pretty much saved the Clips from a double digit deficit with a good defensive play and 2 made 3s in the last 2 mins.
• Q3 saw more assertive dribble penetration by PG, and Clips doing a better job of keeping Luka and Dinwiddie in front of them. Morris did a good job on his Luka matchups and then Kawhi started going off to get the Clips a lead. Clips might’ve blown out Dallas in Q3 itself but for a few untimely turnovers by PG and a missed lay up by Morris, but they did end the quarter with a lead. A key play to me was when Reggie was reinserted late in Q3 with the game tied. He chased Doncic down to the rim, stole the ball from him then ran out to the high left elbow 3 area, got a pass from Kawhi, shifted it down to Batum at the corner for a 3. That 2 way impact helped get the Clips a tie at the end of Q3.
• Most interesting to me were the non-Kawhi minutes in the 2nd half as that has really been the team’s major vulnerability this month. Reggie-Covington-Powell played very well w/PG to get a working margin of 5-8 points before Kawhi returned. Powell played perhaps his best offensive game against a set half court defense. He really used his handle well to weave his way through the defense to get to the rim or the FT line. Reggie covered Luka and Dinwiddie on different possessions and handled his business.
• The wing stop lineup + Powell to close the last 5 minutes turned the game into a blow out, and a lot of that was Kawhi going into terminator mode with some attacks by Powell to take advantage of the space left by the double teams of Kawhi and Morris with some timely scoring. I think Kawhi had 7 points, 4 rebs, and a hockey assist in a 3 min stretch which basically put the game away.

This game represents progress, but the areas for improvement are defensive rebounding, playing with more rim pressure energy to start games and more hustle on defense.

The Lakers play with a sense of fight and desperation every night, so the Clips will have to be on their A game to beat them on Tuesday. Lakers are knocking on the door of the play in and are only 2 games behind the Clips, so the game will have a playoff atmosphere.

Other potential R1 opponents are Denver, Memphis, and New Orleans–no thanks on all 3 counts. We’ll have to beat at least one of those 3, if not 2, to make it to the Finals, but I’d rather start as “easy” as possible. The only possibility other than those 5 is if someone outside of the current top 5 finishes top 3.

I still wouldn’t want to play Luka *again* in the postseason, but they sure as hell shouldn’t want to see Kawhi either.