i don't even know if dallas blew it. they shot incredibly for two games and the opening of game 3, then fell back to earth. all this talk of clippers adjustments, but really, the mavs stopped making all their shots. i admit for about 4 minutes of game 3, i was like: mavs getting payback for the "we believe" warriors ouster. but then doncic sat and the series ended.
Clippers played with more physicality. Their rotations were sharper, quicker, and they were more locked in. Offensively, PG and Kawhi went ham, and they hit shots.
yeah...i don't know. i've watched most of that series. they stopped playing zubac. to me, that was it in terms of strategy and execution. and they were physical from the opening jump. dallas hit very difficult shots in games 1 and 2. kawhi was gonzo in games 2-4, george in games 2 and 3. they still lost game 2 because dallas just hit everything. now, in game 3, it was just clippers star power, but game 4 was dallas going 5-30 from three on basically the same looks that they hit 50% on for the first three games (and really, game 3 was ice cold after the first quarter, too).
Zubac is a liability because the Clippers like to switch, and it left Zubac on an island alone with Luka who was nailing every step back 3. In the 2nd game in particularly, the Clippers cut the lea down in the 4th quarter after Dallas had seemingly taken charge. They tried to blitz Luka in a couple of possessions late in the game but he picked them apart. Game 3 Mavs were up by 19? They fell apart. Luka didn't get any help and Kawhi and PG feasted. Thought the Clips played better defense in everybody else and make Luka a scorer. Game 4? Luka was hurt, and that was that.
they were up 19 very early in the first quarter. clips closed the gap before the quarter was over, iirc. i don't think it was choking. it was "no longer hitting 50% on semi-contested threes". also, i think that's when luka got hurt, actually. he was wearing that shoulder tape stuff in the second half of that game, right?
clips by 10-15, imo. dallas may decide to light it up once more in game 6 just to prove a point or something, but everyone knows this one's over. again, i felt the same about our series until AD went down.
i'll be curious to see how they fare against utah. my gut says they railroad them like they will dallas, and our bracket's winner (por/den/phx...pffft) will be their easiest round. but utah has given them problems this year, i think? really thought we had the conference finals locked up before AD got hurt. really favorable bracket.
Really cooled off late, but this is a hell of a stat Love seeing Clippers choke. They had a couple chances in the final 30 ticks... but they're the Clippers.
