Shades of Suns Rockets 1994 in the Clippers Mavs series?
First two games of that Suns Rockets series, we won the first two games
On the road, I went to Game 3 and we just came out SMOKING. We were up 29-15 after 1 and up 20 in the 2nd. Series had SWEEP written all over it. Then little by little, they chipped away at the lead and then Vernon Maxwell went NUTS on us. They ended up blowing us out and the game ended with the infamous Ainge pegging Mario Ellie in the face with the ball.
We lost Game 4, they tied up the series and well... y’all know the rest.
Clippers down 0-2, got down 15 right out of the gate tonight. Looked like they didn’t even show up. But they chipped away chipped away and end up running away with tonight’s game. Now 2-1 series with a huge Game 4. Will be interesting to see what happens here.
oh, and Doncic put up a ridiculous 44/9/9 tonight. No one else showed up.
Yeah I'm worried about the Clippers winning this series. I was surprised to see Dallas win game 1 with KP basically on the court like a statue. then it reared its head again in game 3, but even worse because many of the mavericks role players stopped making shots after the first quarter.
Dallas have every incentive to beat the Clippers after what happened last year with the way the Clippers crossed the line (particularly Harrell) and basically got away with it Scott free. Yet Dallas saw KP get thrown out of a game(the good KP) on a tick/tack technical foul. I thought it was fitting to see the clippers lose the next series.
I think you've seen Luka basically decide that he is not going to back down this year and he has gone right after the Clippers players even taunting them at times. but with that said he can't get in technical foul trouble. he also needs to lay off the refs because they are basically disgusted with him. one of the refs basically ran from him after the game, which you can't tell me that doesn't play a factor in certain situations.
As EJ tweeted out, the problem for me in this series is that KP is basically not a factor offensively and at times he's just a statue at the defensive end. Paul George went through this last year, yet the Clippers got through the mavs because KL carried them and others stepped up. If KP won't play well, he needs to be benched and the mavs need to play Brunson and D.Powell more. D. Powell will at least stay close to the rim to get rebounds and finish easy buckets. For me this is where R. Carlisle needs to earn his money.