Congrats on beating up an injured clippers team means nothing let’s see how they fair against a much better OKC team! And Dallas is better than us right now because they actually assembled a roster around Luka and have a PG…
Valid points, but that's coming from hindsight. going into the series the mavs were expected struggle and were favorites perhaps because of Leonard's injury concern.
Now that it is over there is no reason to make excuses for the clippers anymore. Leonard can no longer be relied upon. He's not the same player he once was many years ago. The clippers two wins came w/o leonard in the lineuep and they finished the season well w/o him when George and Harden played well. Westbrook did what I think most expected him to do at this point in his career. 1 point and ejected from game 3 is the only time I noticed him.
EDIT: from the outside the mavs beating the clippers may not come as a surprise. but for the mavericks they had been eliminated by the clippers twice before. granted both times with leonard if I recall correctly, but this was still a very physical series and the mavericks proved that their defensive improvements in the final 3rd of the season were not a fluke. For Doncic I know it was important for him to beat the clippers. Maybe not as important as it was to CP3, but we saw him celebrate a fair amount after he beat the clippers who were w/o leonard in that series as well.