The Los Angeles Clippers defeat the Dallas Mavericks 133-127 in double overtime slugfest as the Mavericks’ offensive woes are mostly forgotten for a few quarters tonight and the Clippers finally manage to find some footing, even if on shaky ground, for the first time in six games.
James Harden led the Clippers with a 41 point triple-double tacking on 14 rebounds and 11 assists. Meanwhile, his trusty pick-and-roll partner, Ivica Zubac was not to be left out with 27 points and 11 rebounds, and Bogdan
Bogdanovic even joined the party with 21 points on five made three pointers. Naji Marshall and D’Angelo Russell both led the way for the Mavericks with 28 points each, Cooper Flagg poured in 16 points with 10 of them coming in the fourth quarter and both overtime periods, and Klay Thompson rode a first-quarter hot streak to 13 points on four made threes.
With the exception of the previously mentioned early Klay Thompson heater from three, this game was a bit of a turnover and foul-fueled slog early with both teams combining for xx turnovers and xx fouls total for the game. This suited the Clippers just fine as they won or tied the Mavs in each of the first three quarters. It was not until Naji Marshall and D’Angelo Russell both got hot and led the Mavs to a 28-21 fourth quarter forcing overtime that the Dallas offense appeared to find any footing.
They found support in Max Christie who hit a timely three towards the end of the fourth and Daniel Gafford who had 3 big offensive rebounds in the quarter. Cooper Flagg who did not see the usage Mavericks fans may want in this game had two huge buckets at the end of regulation to keep the game tied and send it to overtime.
The first overtime was mercifully a slightly different story. Flagg was given touches in the middle of the floor and space to work within and almost immediately scored four of the Mavs’ 9 points in the shortened period. Unfortunately for Dallas, James Harden poured in another 6 points in that same time and forced a second overtime.
The second and final overtime period started in much the same way with Cooper Flagg winning an iso possession and scoring a huge bucket at the rim.
However, the magic ran out after that as the Clippers forced a turnover on a 24-second violation after sending a double team at Flagg who was posting up on the left block. That was all she wrote for Dallas’ offense running through Cooper in this game. As Harden continued getting to the paint, and subsequently the free throw line, the possessions that followed for the Mavericks featured a bit of top-of-the-arc iso from a long since cooled off D’Angelo Russell and live ball turnovers from both he and Flagg that sealed the game for the Clippers.
One can only hope that the two lessons learned from the few signs of life shown by the Mavericks in this game will be..
Lesson 1 – Get Flagg the ball more
Cooper Flagg should be getting the ball more either on the move against bigger wings in position to get downhill immediately or on a cleared out side against size mismatches with spacing that can keep opposing feet out of the paint and capitalize on any advantage he might create. This is especially true on a night like tonight where both Klay Thompson and D’Angelo Russell found their grooves as scorers in the first half and drew the eyes of the defense to themselves.
Lesson 2 – Klay is a shooter,
Klay Thompson will not remain cold from three forever and instead of allowing him to try to create for himself off the dribble or inside the arc, the coaching staff should be running plays to get him simple, clean catches in the corners and wings.
Dereck Lively had a frustrating return
One name unmentioned until this point is Dereck Lively II who returned on a minutes restriction from a nine game absence tonight with a knee contusion which later evolved into being reported as a knee sprain. Lively II had a very quiet night in his return with four points, five rebounds, a steal and a block in 17 minutes of action. He appeared to be a bit out of it at points as he was not in position to stop a handful of Zubac and Derrick Jones Jr paint scores and when he was, not much difference could be discerned if you only watched Zubac. The offense was not much better as while he made a few nifty corner kicks out of short roll catches, he did not provide much else. This performance was forgettable and will appropriately be out of the minds of Mavericks fans if he returns to early season form and is impactful yet again in his minutes as the lone center by the end of next week.
The Mavericks will take a 3-10 record and a three game losing streak into Sunday’s game against the 6-6 Portland Trailblazers with one last chance to give the fans something to cheer about during this home stand.
