The stars came out in Dallas. The first half belonged to MVP candidate Luka Dončić. Kyrie Irving took over in the second.
It added up to a 114-101 Game 6 victory for the Dallas Mavericks over the Los Angeles Clippers Friday to put the finishing touches on a 4-2 series win to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. The fifth-seeded Mavericks advance to a second-round battle with the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. The Clippers’ season comes to a shameful and disappointing end.
Coming off a 123-93 blowout loss at home in Game 5, the Clippers fell into a 34-26 first quarter hole on Friday. They scratched and clawed their way back to knot the game at 52 before halftime while practically shutting down Irving, limiting him to two first-half points. That run marked their last stand of the series.
The Mavericks blew the doors off the hinges after halftime as Irving led a 35-20 third quarter-blitz with 13 points in the period. There was no fourth-quarter rally coming for the Clippers, whose playmakers failed to show up with the same intensity of the dynamic Dallas duo.
After going 1 of 6 in the first half, Irving regained his shooting stroke, knocking down 5 of 6 shots in the third quarter. An individual 5-0 Irving run featuring a floater in traffic and a second-chance 3-pointer extended Dallas’ lead to 15 in the final minute of the quarter.
A 3-point play in the fourth extended the Dallas lead to 24, 106-82, extinguishing any lingering hope of a Clippers comeback.
Irving finished with a game-high 30 points after scoring two in the first half. He did a little bit of everything, adding six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. He shot an efficient 11 of 19 from the field and 5 of 9 from distance.
Embed from Getty Images“We’re pushing each other off the court to be better, and then when we get on the court it’s just like synchronicity,” Irving said. “It feels good.”
Dončić played great in his own right, putting in 28 points, with 13 dimes and seven rebounds. On a night where he struggled from the field (9 of 26, 1 of 10 from 3), he took a back seat in the scoring department to Irving in the second half.
“Terrible, man. I need some rest,” Doncic said before walking away from a TV interview, and into a three-day break.
With Kawhi Leonard sidelined and Paul George and James Harden both struggling from the field, Los Angeles did not have the firepower at their disposal to compete. Sixth man Norman Powell led the Clippers in scoring with 20 points off the bench.
George had a quiet double-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. He shot 6 of 18 from the field and hit just 2-of-10 3-point attempts. Harden posted 16 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds. He shot 5 of 16 from the floor and put up a goose egg from the great beyond. Russell Westbrook scored six points in nine minutes off the bench. He has fallen off a cliff from his MVP season.
Leonard missed four of the series’ six games with knee inflammation. He has now played in only four of the Clippers’ last 19 playoff games.
The Mavericks outshot the Clippers from the floor (48.2% to 41.5%) and from 3-point distance (33.3% to 25.8%) on a night when Dončić struggled with his shot.
The Mavericks now have three days off to prepare for Tuesday’s Game 1 against the Thunder. They will await the status of backup forward Maxi Kleber, who sprained his right shoulder on a hard fall in the second quarter, made two free throws, then went directly to the locker room and did not return.
The Clippers can now look forward to to another offseason of questions surrounding an All-Star-studded roster that has failed to compete for a title and exited in the first round of the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
