They would not even be able to let him catch the ball.
Luka Doncic hit the kind of shot you dream of, the icing on the cake of a Sunday performance that can be credibly described as legendary. You will remember that the 21-year-old Dallas Mavericks superstar played on a scattered ankle, that he missed his co-star, Kristaps Porzingis, and that he diced the Los Angeles Clippers, after hitting 21 points in ‘ the end fell second quarter. You may not be able to remember the switch.
Before Doncic went on the clock with 3.7 seconds before dribbling between the legs, the crossover, the stepback and the celebration, the Clippers had already made their fatal mistake. The screen set by Maxi Kleber freed Doncic from Kawhi Leonard and made more than enough room for Dorian Finney-Smith to throw him the incoming pass. Reggie Jackson was on him when he caught it.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers complained that his team was “very passive” on defense in its postgame Zoom conference. He said the Mavs, in general, can catch the ball wherever they want. On the final possession, the game was planned to switch, but not all switches were created equal.
“I mean, you always change everything at the end of the clock,” Rivers said. “But you have to move on to a denial and we did not. Like, we just did not. We switched and allowed their best player to pick up the ball, you know, with three seconds left.”
It’s unclear why Jackson and Paul George did not switch the first off-ball screen on the stage, which Kleber set for Seth Curry. After that, Jackson had to aggressively switch to Doncic and deny the passing job, as Rivers said. This failure of execution did not give easy course or anything close to it, but gave Doncic the opportunity to do something spectacular. That was all he needed.
By going into the series, which is 2-2 tied after Dallas’ 135-133 victory in the Overtime, the Los Angeles defense was meant to test Doncic like never before. Instead, he slashed the second-seeded Clippers in the same way he dissected all-season defenders, in which the Mavericks placed the best offensive rating of all time. His 43-point, 13-assist, 17-rebound performance in Game 4 was no aberration; he had a 42-9-7 line in the opener.
Against all odds, Dallas has actually been better on offense against the Clippers then there was in the regular season: It went from scoring a historic 115.9 points per 100 possessions to scoring 117.1 per 100, according to NBA.com, and that number jumped from a best competition 100.9 per 100 in the half track to 102.3 per 100, according to Cleaning The Glass.
“We need to be an elite defensive team,” Rivers said. “Right now we are not.”
Even more worrying for Los Angeles is that it doesn ‘t seem to figure anything out. The Mavericks’ worst offensive game was easily Game 1, the only one in which they scored at a rate that would not rank first in the league. She looked completely comfortable without Porzingis, and they scored 123.8 points per 100 possessions in the 55 minutes Doncic has been on the bench.
What do you think of it, Russ?
The Clippers had a top-five defense this season, which is expected when you field Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley. However, there were always questions about how some of the other players would hold themselves in the playoffs.
Last season, after three playoff games, Rivers had to take Ivica Zubac out of the rotation and put JaMychal Green in the starting lineup. In March, just before the hiatus, the Clippers lost to the Lakers because LeBron caught James several times during the crunch time on Lou Williams.
If you believe that postseason basketball is more about weaknesses than strengths, and if you believe holding the ball is more important than protecting the paint, there is no better example than this series. Dallas has destroyed the Los Angeles defense by splashing the floor and directing big men into pick-and-rolls – not exactly revolutionary play anymore.
“They made shots, they attacked us from the dribble, they made plays,” Rivers said. “They never ran anything complicated. They just stared us in the face, they hit us from the dribble.”
Had the Clippers successfully denied Doncic – or had he missed his buzzer-beater – the story would have been different. Under 10 with eight and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, Zubac went to the bench, replaced by reserve Landry Shamet, who moved Marcus Morris to “center”. The Clippers went small the rest of the way, mostly with Jackson instead of Shamet, and chose variability then large.
This adjustment helped Los Angeles return, but the bad switch over the final possession was a microcosm of a broader problem: Dallas could still direct Williams and Jackson, the Clippers’ weak switches.
Despite the Clippers’ lineup or schedule, the Mavs took advantage and opened shoes by going to Zubac:
In Montrezl Harrell:
And Williams:
In Jackson:
Perhaps the Clippers would not be in such trouble if Beverley had played more than 20 minutes in the series. He has missed the last three games with a calf strain, and Los Angeles has certainly missed his physique and intensity. Rivers described his team as “very emotionally weak” in Game 4 and said Dallas was much more aggressive.
Even with Beverley, though, Rivers’ coaching staff has serious problems to solve. The Clippers have not had a regular closing lineup all year, and now they need to figure out who can be trusted. Williams is not about to relegate to the end of the bench after dropping 36 points on 13-for-20 shots, and the Clippers are not about to put Morris and Green in 48th place for 48 minutes to play. Can they find ways to avoid obvious mismatches, throw Doncic out of rhythm and start looking like a cohesive, disruptive defensive team again?
If not, they will be stuck where they have been in the first round, trying to outgun the best offensive team in NBA history. And they’ll have to do it twice in three games. This would be the worst nightmare of Los Angeles.
Earlier on That’s Pretty Interesting: Malcolm Brogdon Almost Rescued the Pacers, What Did We Expect From Philly Sans Simmons?
