Clippers score 154 points in victory over Mavericks

Paul George scored 35 points, Kawhi Leonard added 32 and the Los Angeles Clippers set a franchise record for points in a playoff game by rolling past the Dallas Mavericks 154-111 on Tuesday night in a Western Conference first-round series in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Montrezl Harrell added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers, the West’s No. 2 seed, who lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 and can advance with a win tonight.

George had shot 29% in the series and endured fans’ wrath on social media. He said he spoke to the team psychiatrist before Game 5.

“Whatever it was, the bubble got the best of me,” George said. “I was just in a dark place. … The past couple of games, it was just difficult.”

Luka Doncic, who hit a game-winner at the buzzer in Game 4 to cap off a 43-point triple-double, was held to 22 points on 6-of-17 shooting for seventhseeded Dallas.

Doncic said Clippers forward Marcus Morris might have stepped on his gimpy left ankle intentionally early in the third quarter.

“He’s just saying a lot of bad stuff to me all the game,“Doncic said. ”I don’t want to talk to him. I’ve just got to move on. … I just hope it wasn’t intentional.

If that was intentional, that’s very bad.”

Nuggets 117, Jazz 107: Jamal Murray scored 33 of his 42 points in a second half while playing every minute and third-seeded Denver rallied to beat Utah, the No. 6 seed, to avoid elimination in the Western Conference.

Murray was unstoppable down the stretch in nearly matching his 50-point effort in Game 4. He hit 17 of 26 shots and had eight assists, including a pass to Nikola Jokic for a three-pointer with 23.6 seconds remaining that sealed the win for the Nuggets, who still trail 3-2 in the series.

Jokic scored 21 of his 31 points in the first quarter.

Donovan Mitchell finished with 30 points for the Jazz.

Pacers fire Mcmillan

The Indiana Pacers fired coach Nate Mcmillan on Wednesday less than three weeks after announcing that he would keep the job for two more years.

What changed? The announcement came 48 hours after the Pacers suffered their second straight first-round sweep.

Mcmillan went 183-136 in four seasons with the Pacers, going to the playoffs each season. But Indiana never reached the second round and endured the first three four-game sweeps in the franchise’s NBA history. His playoff record with the team was just 3-16.