LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic is playing with a sprained right knee that would likely sideline him for the regular season. The Dallas star has also been congested and ill for several days, battling a bug that forces him to blow his nose during downtime.
Doncic simply refused to be slowed down in Game 5 — not by multiple illnesses, and certainly not by the Los Angeles Clippers in a blowout victory that put his Dallas Mavericks on the brink of the second round.
Doncic scored 20 of his 35 points in the second half and added 10 assists and seven rebounds, propelling the Mavericks to a 123-93 victory Wednesday night and a 3-2 lead in the first round.
Maxi Kleber made five 3-pointers and Kyrie Irving added 14 points for the Mavericks, who clamped down defensively on the Clippers and gave Los Angeles the largest margin of defeat in its playoff history. Dallas needs one more victory to secure its first playoff victory since 2022 and only its third since winning the NBA title in 2011.
“I think it was a really big game,” Doncic said. “We’re winning, and now we have to win one out of two. We have to go back to Dallas and play the same way.
Game 6 will take place Friday night in Dallas. If necessary, Game 7 will return to Los Angeles on Sunday.
Doncic’s injured knee has limited him in the series at times, and the symptoms of his apparent illness are also slowing him down. But he clearly became more comfortable and more dangerous as the night wore on in downtown Los Angeles.
He scored 14 points in the third quarter as the Mavs increased their lead to 25 and eventually took an 89-69 advantage into the fourth, where the Clippers never threatened to imitate Dallas’ rally. from a 31-point deficit in Game 4.
Doncic said his illness made things “difficult” and his knee was “not really good.”
“But we’re talking about adrenaline in a playoff game,” he added. “Once you start, you want to do everything you can to help your team win. I just wanted to continue.
When these teams met in the first round three seasons ago, Dallas also won Game 5 on the road and returned home with a chance to clinch. The Clippers won the next two games to clinch the series in seven games – but the star of this comeback was Kawhi Leonard, who was unable to overcome his own nagging ailments in this series.
Paul George and Ivica Zubac scored 15 points each for the Clippers, who played their second straight game and third of the series without Leonard. Los Angeles’ leading scorer is suffering from right knee inflammation at the most critical time of the season, and his teammates couldn’t win without him in Game 5 after doing so twice earlier in the series .
Leonard’s other stars couldn’t step up in Game 5, although Dallas’ defense deserved much of the credit. The Clippers hitting went 9 for 35 on 3-point attempts in Game 5 after making 18 3s in Game 4.
“I think it was just the postponement of Game 4, talking about it, watching it,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “Being able to play with pace on offense, but just doing a good job of taking the 3 points out of the game.”
George went 4 for 13 and missed four of his six 3-point attempts, failing to assert himself offensively except for a brief period in the third quarter.
Harden had another confusing performance in the playoffs, going 2 for 12 and missing six of his seven 3s. Russell Westbrook also struggled off the bench, missing his first eight shots before finally scoring in the third quarter.
George remained calm after the beating, simply citing “the unusual mistakes we made.”
“That’s not who we’ve been on this show, and that’s not who we are,” George added. “We have to be better, especially in this situation. But we’ve been here before, we’ve gone to Dallas 3-2, so we have to have a winning mentality only in Dallas.
Both teams pulled their starters midway through the fourth quarter, resting up for the potential closeout in Dallas.
“We just didn’t play well,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Defensively and offensively, we just didn’t play a good game. It’s OK. Turn the page.”
Although Doncic and Irving each missed their first three 3-point attempts in the first half of Game 5, Dallas got 12 first-half points from Kleber, the German shooter who scored hitting a buzzer while beating 3 in this building to beat the Lakers a little over a year ago.
The loss left the Clippers facing the possibility that it could be their final game as the home team in the downtown Los Angeles arena they share with the Lakers. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s lavish Intuit Dome will open next season in Inglewood.
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