No knees, no ankles, all the balls in Luka-Led OT Win

We make a lot of fun of NBA legend Charles Barkley and his TV work on TNT, largely invited by him because “Championship Chuck” is so shy. Our most common jibe: His in-game commentary sometimes reveals that he doesn’t need to watch the actual match shown by his network.

But in the midst of this Dallas Mavericks best-of-seven NBA playoff series against the Clippers favorite, Barkley is watching. And he’s looking at the muscles of the MAVs led by young people in their way of respecting.

“(Kristaps) Porzingis and (Luka) Doncic are not holding back,” Chuck said at half-time in Match 3 on Friday. “I love it, man. You know (the Clippers) are trying to bully them, and they stand up to the bully …

“Dallas has a bright future, mate.”

That “future” has come here faster than expected.

The Mavs followed the aforementioned Game 3 (a game loss and a loss to Doncic’s ankle) with a first crotch defeat of the Clippers, Sunday afternoon’s Game 4 OT thriller in the Orlando bubble that ended in Dallas 135 , LOS ANGELES 133.

Mavs just came out of the ankles. They just got off the knees. But they have a surplus of balls.

“This is my 18th year as head coach in this league,” Dallas boss Rick Carlisle later said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a match where a team fought so hard to come back, hold out, get over the adversity of the draw at the end and then find a way to win.

“He showed a lot of tenacity, a lot of autonomy and aggression”.

The first three games of this Mavs-Clippers were intense and lively. Game 1 saw Porzingis sent off after being lured into a heated exchange with Marcus Morris, who started by wrestling with Luka from behind. Match two was a Dallas win where the Mavs ignored LA’s attempted brutality and just flew by the defenders all night. Race 3, overshadowed by Doncic’s injured start, featured other unpleasant moments, including LA’s Montrezl Harrell uttering some seemingly noteworthy words in the direction of Slovenian star Doncic. (Harrell would like you to know that he apologized. So let’s move on.)

Is Sunday? XXXXXXX

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Both Doncic (XXX here) and Porzingis (XXX) are experiencing their first NBA playoff series and both have “held out”. Doncic, the world knows, tried to survive in Game 4 by playing on his kneaded ankle What they least know: Porzingis woke up on the morning of Game 2 and thought his knee wouldn’t allow him to play … until when he did not want to remove the discomfort.

RIP “Soft Euros.”

The Mavs are now 3-1 down in the series; it’s a death knell, as the NBA teams in that circumstance have an all-time record of 11-240. On Tuesday they will try to play 5 and they will do it powered by the fantastic tandem of Doncic (average 27.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists in series) and Porzingis (23.7 points and 8.7 rebounds).

They probably won’t be able to prove that they and their Mavs are still on the same level as Kawhi Leonard (XXX) and Paul George (XXX) and their Clippers.

But they’re proving the playful Charles Barkley right. They will soon be good enough. And they are strong enough already.