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“What Luka Doncic is doing would be illegal in five states”

What Luka Doncic is doing to the Clippers would be illegal in five states”. It’s a tweet from an American blogger during the second half of 121-127 that put the Clippers-Mavericks series 0-2 on Tuesday. The confirmation of the coup: an initial victory away from home is to make way, of course. But two… two is taking a high-speed train. One that, or so logic and history say, leads to the second round. The Clippers ain’t dead, no yet. They need to win Game 3 tomorrow and they will be back in the race. Still uphill, but on the run. Another defeat in the first game of the series in Dallas (more than 15,000 fans expected: Comanche territory) it would be little less than extreme unction for a project that would face a very ugly outlook. But about that it will be time to talk, if it comes.

The story is with the Mavericks, it said: Of the 426 times that a team has gone 2-0, only 27 (6.3%) had a comeback. That includes, in fact they are the majority, the cases in which the two wins are the one who starts playing on his court. The Clippers are closer to being sweeps: 176 times of those 426 it went from 2-0 to 4-0. If the 0-2 are isolated for the one who does not have a court factor? In the current format, seven games and in the 2-2-1-1-1 format, it has come back twice from 24 totals: the 1994 Suns to the Rockets, in the semifinals of Confefencia; the 2005 Mavs to the Rockets, in the first round) and, the most recent case, the 2017 Celtics, who came back from 0-2 to the Bulls when Rajon Rondo was injured, who was destroying his exes and who now plays, precisely, in the Clippers.

The Clippers, you have to rub your eyes, have lost five games in a row since beating the Nuggets 3-1 and they had made, it was supposed, the pass to the first Conference final in their history (it is said soon), in the Florida bubble. The failure of a team that started as a great favorite for the title, added to the fact that the ring ended up on the finger of the Lakers, the eternal neighbor, caused a series of changes that began on the bench, Tyronn Lue by a Doc Rivers that came out very marked … and that we are a few days away from knowing if not too indicated. Later, the Clippers outlined a different team, less depth for points and talent but theoretically more Lasted. And they did it spending all that had to be spent: 64 million for four years for Marcus Morris to follow, extension to put Paul George in a gigantic 5×226, 19 million for two years from Serge Ibaka and a surprising extension for Luke Kennard after a three-cushion transfer: 64 million (56 guaranteed ) for four years for the bodyguard.

After two playoff games that should be redemption games but are still the nightmare that never seems to end (we will see …), Kennard does not step on the track, Ibaka hardly plays, he modo playoffs de Rondo doesn’t hook up with the team and the top scorer beyond the two superstars is Nico Batum, who arrives between the two games … 20 points. The roster The most veteran of the League is not demonstrating the required ground or experience and Lue (his time is now, against the ropes) has done nothing other than create a tremendous tactical confusion by trying overact in adjustments during the second game, apparently without a clear plan. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard average 59 points between the two but neither seems like the best player in the series., the second highly demanded between responsibility in attack and the need to help Doncic more in defense, which yes seems the best player in the series. No secondary to tone, no defensive plan and with 32.9% in triples after being the best team in the Regular Season for efficiency in the shotOr, the Clippers are 0-2 because they have been worse than the Mavericks. Not because of bad luck, not because of a concatenation of counter-spins, or because of various statistical anomalies: the Mavericks HAVE-BEEN-BEST in both games played at LA Top to bottom.

The ball, the control, is on the Mavs side, who are on board the match point with two games now on his court and three of the five that would be played at most. Rick Carlisle, one of the best coaches in the NBA, is reviewing Lue and the Mavs are showing that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bet on play against them. The Clippers, it must be remembered, chose side of the box to avoid the Lakers in an unlikely first round or a more predictable second. They did so by losing (grotesquely second) to the Rockets and Thunder, two of the worst teams in the League. In OKC the end was, in fact, a small embarrassment because the Clippers did not know what to do not to beat a team that the victory hurt their final draft scores. In return they stayed in the first round (theoretically happy) with the Mavs, a better team than many metrics indicate. Or at least more dangerous: irregular and with many defeats against inferior rivals, he has had a great performance against the noble zone. 33-16 total against the top 6 of the course in net rating, 9-3 in the last 12 (since mid-February) against those in the top 10. Overcome a horrible start with the pandemic raging in their ranks, the Mavs have finished off beautifully, at his best defensive moment of the year and with the team again at its terrifying offensive level of the previous year, with Tim Hardawawy Jr in starting rhythm (22 points on average and 46% on triples in his last ten regular season games ) and Josh Richardson in the second unit.

Porzingis is at his best defensive tone and, without brilliance, he is knowing how to move to the rim in attack; the secondaries shoot from where they want and all they want: 50% in triples for now with a +33 total from the line of three (and +16 global); those role players show up enough (unlike his rival) and Luka Doncic is taking advantage of the Clippers’ defensive improvisation to the full: 35 points, 8.5 rebounds and 9 assists so far, scoring against all his pairings. More efficient than in the bubble playoffs and at a production rate gifted but perfectly sustainable for him. With a fantastic read of the opponent’s constant mistakes, Doncic is punishing every defensive change … or every absence of it.. Breaking the pivots on the outside, stuffing small defenders into the zone and, above all, always finding their teammates on the line of three or near the rim. In the second game the Mavs signed a decisive 30/48 near the basket. Easy points and 128.3 for now of offensive rating for Texans. Artillery.

The Clippers repeat old problems: Zubac is not a viable anchor if he has to stay out with Doncic and the small quintets They neither protect the rim nor take advantage of the theoretical greater aggressiveness in the adjustments. This is influenced by the terrible form of Serge Ibaka, who spent two months of Regular Season unemployed due to injury and returned just before these playoffs. In attack there are points missing everywhere beyond Leonard and George, and the arrival of Rondo has not solved (with his good moments) the already recurring problems in the direction that are a refrain that is always repeated in this team. All of that leads the Clippers to play the Mavs’ plan, who can survive a first half like Game 2, in which Kawhi had 30 points on 10/14 shooting and George, 17. Because, the Comparisons are hateful for now, Texans are more than doncic: 57.7% in triples released, an outrage (the League average is around 38%) and the leadership, in any case, of a player who in eight playoff games (halfway between two seasons) averages 32 points and gives the feeling of having fun whatever they put in front of him. Including a Kawhi that makes you sweat … but also forces you to sweat a lot. Too much if your team needs you to hit scoring combustion in the final quarters.

Players like Rondo and Ibaka, with a pedigree well-proven in the playoffs, became involved in visible arguments during the second game. The explanations of Lue and the players were not very convincing and the messages seem to get lost between the bench and the court Yes, as the journalist Law Murray assures (The Athletic), Lue’s order for the second match was “go to the hoop without stopping and at all costs”. The Clippers didn’t. Now, with that character of his so in question, they travel to Dallas haunted by the shadow of failure. That it would be catastrophic if it is not advanced and the last two seasons are put online. But the Clippers aren’t dead, far from it, and they have time. Although they also have in front of them, of course, Luka Doncic, Rick Carlisle and the energy right now fully vital, electric, of the Mavericks. Very favorite at this point … but pending finish.

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