LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers had enough answers to withstand Luka Doncic’s record-breaking debut, especially after his running mate was thrown out of the game.
Leonard had 29 points and 12 rebounds, and the Clippers got a big boost from Kristaps Porzingis’ red card to beat the Dallas Mavericks 118-110 on Monday night in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series.
Doncic finished with 42 points, the most ever from a player in his first post-season game, and added nine assists and seven rebounds. It had seed no. 7 hung right with the Clippers for much of the night.
“I mean, it’s great,” Leonard said.
But Los Angeles took the lead when Porzingis was sent off for picking up his second technical foul in the third quarter and Doncic failed to bring the Mavs back.
“KP gave me his back. He did it for me. He did it for his teammate. He supported me,” said Doncic. “Not only me, but the whole team appreciates him. I don’t think it was right to take him out of the game, especially in the playoffs.”
The second game in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday.
Paul George added 27 points and Marcus Morris had 19 for the Clippers.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 18 points and Porzingis finished with 14, along with Seth Curry.
The Clippers defeated Doncic, the 21-year-old superstar who led the NBA in triple doubles, whenever they could. But he never stopped responding to them, but Patrick Beverley and Morris’ last three times have finally rejected Dallas.
The turning point came much earlier.
Dallas led 71-66 with 9:10 left in third place when Doncic was called for palming the ball. Morris was eager to grab the ball and ended up grabbing Doncic, who tried to free himself. Porzingis approached and attempted to wipe out Morris, who responded with a shove. The referees gave both players technical fouls.
Porzingis had picked up his first technical foul in the first half for his reaction to a whistled foul when he believed he had blocked a shot.
“I saw it come in Luka’s face and I didn’t like it. That’s why I reacted.” Porzingis said. “This is a smart and smart thing for them to do. I just have to be smarter and control my emotions, especially in the first one.”
Morris didn’t think either player deserved a coach.
“Playoff man, nobody should be kicked out in the playoffs,” he said. “I know he really hurt their team, so it’s not my fault.”
Crew chief Kane Fitzgerald said officials determined after seeing the replay that Porzingis had escalated the incident when he approached Morris.
The Clippers swarmed Doncic from the start, forcing him to three turnovers in the first two minutes as he ran for a 10-0 lead.
It quickly grew to 18-2 3 1/2 minutes into the match and things looked really bleak for the Mavs when Doncic slipped onto the pitch on a drive and appeared to be injuring his lower leg. He went deep after exiting the game shortly thereafter, but Dallas played well while he was out and eventually came back to lead 38-34 after one.
The Mavericks then pulled out a 12-0 run in the second to take the lead to 50-36 which the Clippers cut to 69-66 during the interval.
TIP-INS
Mavericks: Dallas made 12 3s in the first half, a franchise playoff record.
Clippers: Reserve Montrezl Harrell is back after leaving the team following the death of his grandmother and had six points in 15 minutes. … Doc Rivers coached his 168th post-season game, tying Red Auerbach to eighth on the NBA’s career list.
SHOW THE MOMENT
Harrell skipped the entire schedule of seeding matches, the first six while he was away from the team and then two while he was in quarantine after returning to campus. He rejoined his teammates on Monday morning after finishing quarantine.
“I thought Nelson Mandela walked in. That’s how it feels,” Rivers said of the reunion with the sixth man of the year candidate, who made it clear he wanted to play despite not training first and wore a photo of himself. grandmother on her warming shirt.
“So it was nice to bring him back in, not only out of the quarantine he had been in for so long, but he went through a lot of emotional stuff. So I think it was good for our kids to be able to grab him and hug him,” touch it and it’s good to see us. “
THE CALENDAR OF CARLISLE
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle began press conferences at Disney by reading events from the Equal Justice Initiative calendar, and Monday’s entry had a draw in Los Angeles. It was August 17, 1965 when Watts’ revolt ended after six days. Driven by the arrest of a young black driver by a white policeman, they caused 34 deaths and $ 40 million in damage.
Carlisle said that talking about past injustices is necessary to raise hopes for social reform now.
“If we talk about it, carry it on, it will have a healing effect and we will have the ability to chip and make things better,” Carlisle said.
—
More NBA APs: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
