A year ago, around this time, the Mavericks seemed in the process of decay. Since they already had Luka Doncic with his mega-massive extension (about 207×5 in 2021, the highest at that time for a rookie in history), they could at least breathe when it came to the philosopher’s stone, the crux of all issues. Doncic was tied but it was a simple matter of time before he began to ask for changes, some entries and also exits until the time finally arrived to ask for his own if the Mavs were not able to put something around him (offices, bench, court). that showed that they knew how to be competitive, that they had not stayed in the first part of the manual, the chapter that says to choose very high in the draft and cross yourself so that a generational star arrives. A year ago and behind that, I insist, there seemed to be, simply, a lot of blank pages.
The bet on Kyrie Irving, in professional and especially personal decline since his departure from Cleveland until his arrival in Texas, seemed like a risk closer to improvisation and desperation than a step in a calculated plan. The team did not have the basic minimum so that Doncic could convert it (the rest is up to him to be competitive; Basically: muscle, defense, rebound, intimidation and a little outside shooting. Kyrie looked like a joker playing with dynamite while everyone at his They looked around with apprehension (when will the fuse be lit?) and Jason Kidd did not fit, to put it mildly, the mold of the best possible coach. Neither as a strategist nor as a locker room manager. Nico Harrison, after almost two decades at Nike, He had an exceptional reputation and an agenda that included all the numbers in the NBA universe, but he still didn’t really know what he wanted to do to get the Mavs out of the hangover of the Donnie Nelson/Rick Carlisle era, years of stability that, with Dirk Nowitzki as the axis, they gave the franchise a first and only (for now) title that did not see company in the future. But in professional sports, for good (as in this case) and for bad, the Future is a deeply liquid concept.
A completely transformed team
Because a year ago, to make matters worse, there was the little matter of the first-round pick, which would go to the Knicks in the final blow of a transfer for Kristaps Porzingis, another solution that was not, which will finally be settled this year when the pick from Dallas does go to New York. This is how that Porzingis mortgage will be closed after the Mavs launched into a scandalous, too public tanking, to lose the last games of last season and not damage their chances of keeping their pick in the top 10, where it was protected from the trip to the East Coast, and thus be able to use it at that time of greatest need and best prospects. They did it: a trade with the Thunder, who wanted to secure point guard Cason Wallace, gave the Mavs a wonderfully well-invested 12 in center Dereck Lively II, Duke’s defensive anchor. The Thunder also ate Davis Bertans’ toxic contract. The toll of that path, a brilliant management by Harrison, was an even greater wear and tear (the tanking, the commotion in the American media more about the forms than the substance) in the public image of the Mavericks who in one year had gone from playing the Western final to not even being in the play-in playoffs. There was talk of dysfunctionality. And about Doncic: how much he weighed, how much he complained to the referees, how much he understood with Kyrie. How long would it take to call his superiors: What’s going on here, what plans do we have?
So the Mavs started the course with the feeling that a shadow was chasing them, the ticking of a countdown that had been activated. During the first months, things were a flat encephalogram: injuries, dependence on Doncic, toughness problems (defense, rebound), sticks to Kidd, addiction to the triple… But things have ended up working out. Doncic and Kyrie have been able to play together, with continuity and health, really. And, for the first time, surrounded by a Praetorian guard that defends, gets physical, runs the court and shoots (just enough). Nico Harrison recovered Dante Exum for the NBA with a two-year contract worth just over six million that has become a bargain. Like Derrick Jones Jr, who plays for the minimum and will be a free agent in the summer, or Lively II, a discovery under control on a rookie contract in the immediate future. At the close of the winter market, the new team (literally) was finalized with Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington, surgical signings with good contracts: until 2026 and very friendly for their performance.
An A+ star (Luka Doncic), a second regenerated star (or so it seems) competitively and emotionally (Kyrie Irving) and an army at the service of both (Jone Jr, Lively II, Exum, Gafford, Washington…) that would only be missing ( It doesn’t happen) that Tim Hardaway Jr was truly an efficient scorer/shooter. When you have the big stars (the most difficult thing) and you get the secondary ones right (the sword of Damocles) things happen: 16-2 in the last 18 games, from an irregular play-in team to as aspiring as anyone not called the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets. In that stretch they have had, gulps, the best defense in the NBA and Doncic, finally placed on the front line of the battle for an MVP that Jokic will surely end up winning, has averaged 32 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
The return of the old enemy in the playoffs
So the Mavs have reached 50 wins again and regained their playoff spot. They arrive in optimal condition at the right time. And it better be that way: fifth in the West with a minimum option of being fourth, the normal thing is that they go on the side of the champion, Nuggets who are leaders of the West just in time, and are already guaranteed a first round of very high flights. Morbid, assured headlines and one of those tricks of fate that hide, if you want to be optimistic, a great opportunity: their rival in the first round will be the old enemy, Doncic’s first great demon in the playoffs and a team that has a lot at stake in a year of all in kamikaze. Their opponent in the first round will be the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers, who have Kawhi Leonard out due to knee problems, could not keep up with the Nuggets, Timberwolves and Thunder. Their drop in performance (eight defeats in those 18 games of the Mavs’ loss) sent them, added to the growth of the Dallas team, on a collision course that has already been confirmed. One will be fourth and the other fifth, so they will face each other in a tremendous first round in which, except in very rare cases, the Angelenos will have home court advantage: 51-29 to 50-30 with the tiebreaker in their favor, a victory in two easy games (Jazz, Rockets) or a loss for the Mavs in two that include a suck one (Pistons) and a tough one (Thunder)… in case there are reasons to make it competitive.
It is the fourth playoff berth for Luka Doncic, who has a 2-3 record in the West playoffs. Two of the three losses were against the Clippers. The other, in the 2022 Conference final against the Warriors who ended up winning the title. The Slovenian point guard has played 28 playoff games, and almost half (13) have been against that rival who beat him in 2020, in the Florida bubble and in 2021. Two first rounds in a row, a 4-2 and a 4-3. The two with a home field advantage (although in the Disney complex it mattered little) for the same one who, barring a miracle, will have it now, an all-or-nothing Clippers who have to legitimize the risk of having added Russell Westbrook and James Harden to that last one. a brush from the prime of Kawhi and Paul George that was too much for a Doncic who has never been so well accompanied, so equipped to combat it. In his two previous losses against a very intimate enemy, his rotation was much worse than now. And he did not have at his side that premium escape valve that he assumes, at his current point of spiritual calm, Kyrie Irving.
In the previous games against the Clippers in the playoffs, Doncic came up short although he averaged 33.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.5 assists. In matches his balance is 5-8, in qualifying rounds 0-2. In the regular season he is 7-11 and averages 32.6 + 8.3 + 7.4. This year, 1-2… but they haven’t played since December 21st. That is to say, the Clippers have not played against these Mavericks. Those who have not stopped winning since they started using the Doncic-Kyrie-Jones Jr-Washington-Gafford quintet.
In their confrontations there have been controversies, hot moments, challenges, accusations of excessive harshness, derogatory gestures… a new rivalry that heated up in 2020, when the Clippers drew a gigantic, historic game from Doncic: 43 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists and an incredible triple at the buzzer to make it 2-2 that didn’t go any further (4-2 final) because everything was, with nothing else behind and with Porzingis injured, Doncic or Doncic or Doncic.
On this day in 2020: Luka Doncic buried an ICONIC buzzer-beating game winner in Game 4 of the first round vs. the Clippers 🚨
Doncic finished with 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists in the Mavs’ OT win 🔥
(via @dallasmavs)pic.twitter.com/w2ueKzcpWN
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 23, 2023
A year later, the defeat was more painful. And strange. For the first time in the playoffs, the visitor won the first six games of the series. So things ended 3-3 before the Clippers’ home victory, in the seventh. The Mavs had gone 0-2 and 2-3, but they wasted three bullets on their court, in the sixth game a match point that Kawhi fixed, who finished with 45 points and 18/25 in shooting, including two crucial triples in those who sought to stay with Doncic in the defensive pairing. The Clippers advanced, but the dream of their first Finals died with a knee injury to Kawhi himself in the middle of the second round, against the Jazz.
Doncic returns to the playoffs. And he returns against his first great rival in a race in which, he is destined for it, he will have many. That’s how it is for all the greats. If the Mavs lose, they will leave with a bad taste in their mouths. With the certainty that they have found something but with the bitterness that this opportunity could have been one of the good ones. If the Clippers lose in the first round, with a historically expensive, veteran team created to win, they will take a huge blow. There will be pressure, equality, narratives and superstars who will risk their legacy on the court. So, after a year away, the return of Doncic and his Mavs to the playoffs brings dynamite.
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2024-04-11 11:37:40
#Luka #Doncic #enemy
