No Leonard, no problem as Clippers take out Mavericks
The final word came down late Sunday morning.
The inflammation in Kawhi Leonard’s right knee kept him out of the Clippers’ playoff opener against the Dallas Mavericks.
And, so, Paul George, James Harden and the rest of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s group pressed forward without their best player.
With Harden and George doing their parts, the Clippers crawled to the finish line, doing enough to build a 29-point third-quarter lead and escape with a 109-97 victory over the Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena.
George had 11 of his 22 in the fourth quarter and Harden had 20 of his 28 in the first half to help the Clippers take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.
“There’s no bad win in the playoffs,” Lue said. “It was a huge win for us. I thought PG and James were great. Russ [Westbrook] coming off our bench. Everybody was good tonight.”
When Luka Doncic (33 points and 13 assists) and Kyrie Irving (31 points) started cooking in the fourth, the Clippers needed George and Harden to take control.
Paul did just that when the Clippers’ big lead was sliced to 15 in the fourth and the game still wasn’t over.
He scored seven straight points and threw a pass to Terance Mann for a threepointer that pushed the Clippers’ lead to 22 points, which gave them just enough breathing room.
George, who was eight for 20 from the field and four for 12 from three-point range, recognized that Dallas’ defense keyed in on him with Leonard out.
“They did a great job of really shutting the floor down,” George said. “I thought they weren’t letting me play. They were pressuring up and then they were cutting the lanes off for me to drive and to try to get to the rim. I thought they did a good job to make me uncomfortable. But I’ll be better. I’ll look at the film to see how can I be more efficient and just take what they give me.”
The Clippers built a 27point lead in the second quarter, their defense so smothering that the 30 points they held the Mavericks to in the first half were the least amount of points they have allowed in any half in a postseason game.
Ivica Zubac was big for the Clippers in the first 24 minutes, punishing the Mavericks for 12 of his playoff career high 20 points to go along with 15 rebounds.
“Very proud of Zu,” George said. “Zu can go dominate every night. I thought he understood his presence and he was awesome, he was awesome. He was a straight bucket when we threw it to him and he was controlling the paint and we’re going to be very good anytime Zu is playing at that level. I just thought he dominated tonight.”
Game 2 is here Tuesday, which doesn’t give Leonard much time to get healthy.
When asked if Leonard could be out for multiple games, Lue said the team is unsure when the All-Star will be available to play.
“I’m not sure,” Lue said. “Like I said, he’s progressing. He was on the floor the last couple of days and we’re not sure. We’re just taking it day by day.”
Leonard wasn’t able to do any contact work last week when the Clippers prepared for the Mavericks with four days of practice.
Leonard missed the last eight regular-season games because of the knee issue, last playing in Charlotte on March 31. He played in 68 games this season, the most Leonard has participated in since playing 74 games for San Antonio during the 201617 season.
“It’s tough for him,” Lue said. “But he’s getting better. He’s progressing. He’s been on the court the last couple of days. And, so, we’ll see. But he’s frustrated, as he should be. To put in the kind of work he did this year, play as many games as he did, do what he did this year and then now missing Game 1 of the playoffs. So, it’s tough on him, but we got his back 100%.”
This is the third time in five years that the Clippers and Mavericks have met in the postseason, and Los Angeles won the previous two encounters.
So, to get the first win in this edition of the series was “very important,” George said.