Luka Doncic on Friday had 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the defensive-minded Dallas Mavericks had a chippy 101-90 victory over the LA Clippers to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round series.
During a sequence of three-pointers from James Harden, Doncic called out to his coaches, saying that he wanted to defend the star Clippers guard.
It was suddenly defense first in Dallas.
Photo: Jerome Miron-USA Today
The Mavs rode the same defense that gave them home-court advantage with a Game 2 victory in Los Angeles to win in Dallas three years after losing all three first-round games on their floor in a seven-game loss to the Clippers.
“I think we all see that when we’re on the defensive side, there’s a different look in everybody’s eyes,” said rookie center Dereck Lively II, who had all 13 of his points in the first half as the Mavs got their lob game going with 10 dunks before the break. “It’s like being aggressive and being the aggressor even though they have the ball.”
Daniel Gafford, Lively’s tag-team partner as a dunker and rim protector, had an emphatic block of a dunk attempt by Paul George early in the fourth quarter while Dallas were taking control for good in a game with five technical fouls, a flagrant foul and two ejections.
Harden scored 21 points for the Clippers, but just seven after halftime, while fellow stars George and Kawhi Leonard had little impact.
Norman Powell also had 21, while Ivica Zubac had 19 points and eight rebounds.
However, the Clippers had 19 turnovers and the Mavericks had seven blocks — three of them from Gafford and two from Lively.
George dealt with foul trouble and finished with seven points, five rebounds, five assists and five fouls.
Leonard never looked comfortable in his second game back after missing nine games with right-knee inflammation. He had nine points and nine rebounds.
“It just didn’t respond the way we wanted after the first game, but we’re going to get it right,” Leonard said about his surgically repaired knee. “Time will tell. We’re doing all the right things.”
Kyrie Irving picked up his fourth foul early in the second half before scoring 19 of his 21 points in the final 13-plus minutes.
Doncic’s costar was instrumental in Dallas rebuilding an 18-point lead that had been cut to six.
An already testy game reached a boiling point midway through the fourth quarter when Russell Westbrook slung Doncic around after fouling him.
Westbrook was called for a technical for that contact and for shoving P.J. Washington after Washington confronted him. Washington also was called for a technical during the sequence and already had one from an earlier shoving match with Terance Mann.
Westbrook, who in the first half got a flagrant 1 foul for excessive contact when fouling Josh Green on a breakaway, and Washington were ejected.
Westbrook, who missed all seven shots and scored one point, drew the ire of the crowd one other time when he bowled over Doncic after Zubac was called for a foul as Doncic went up for a shot.
Officials reviewed the play, but ruled Westbrook’s contact to be incidental.
“We’ve got to channel our aggression in other ways,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “It’s getting chippy. I like the physicality. I like the tough possessions. I like all of that, but we’ve got to make sure we’re not getting the technical fouls, we’re not getting thrown out of the game, because everybody’s important.”
At Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning basket lifted the Pacers to a 121-118 overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Pacers let a 19-point lead get away, but finally thwarted the short-handed Bucks’ rally to gain a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Kevin Durant and the Suns were one defeat away from elimination after falling 126-109 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves earned a 3-0 series lead for the first time in the franchise’s playoffs history.
Additional reporting by AFP
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