Sports writing, Mar 15 (EFE) .- The Los Angeles Clippers took revenge on Monday night in Dallas with a 99-109 victory over the Mavericks despite the fact that the best man of the Texans, Luka Doncic, got a new triple -double (25 + 10 + 12) and that his teammate Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points.
The 49 points of the Doncic-Porzingis combo were insufficient to counter a Clippers led by Kawhi Leonard, who finished the game with 22 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. The problem for the Mavs was that, in addition to Leonard’s points, six other Clippers players scored more than 10 points, including 15 points from Paul George and as many from Ivica Zubac.
The Clippers arrived at the American Airlines Center in Dallas with the fresh memory of the beating that the Mavs gave them in late December, 73-124, a total of 51 points difference, the largest in the history of the Los Angeles team.
But above all, the team of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George landed in Dallas without two starters, Serge Ibaka due to back problems, and Patrick Beverley, with an injured knee, and after losing five of the last six games they had played. On Sunday they lost by 20 points to the New Orleans Pelicans, 115-135.
The Mavs of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis were in the opposite situation. The Dallas team had won five of the last six games, with the Latvian center increasingly fit and the Slovenian guard-point guard unstoppable.
Despite all this, the Clippers are fourth in the Western Conference while the Mavericks are eighth.
The game started well for the Clippers. The combinations and points of Leonard and George allowed Los Angeles to put a 3-8 on the scoreboard in the first three minutes. On the other side, Doncic was the top performer for the Mavericks, scoring and assisting his teammates.
When Doncic went to the bench in the first rotation, the score was 10-12 for the Clippers. With Luka on the bench, the Clippers, propelled by a phenomenal Ivica Zubac, hung a 0-10 run on the Mavericks to leave the score at 10-22 with 3.30 left in the first quarter.
With the next rotation and Doncic’s return to the court, the Mavs managed to close the gap, but the aggressive defense of the Clippers only allowed that at the end of 12 minutes, the Dallas were 8 points behind the Angelenos, 23- 31.
The second quarter began with a statement from Doncic, who made two consecutive triples on the Mavs’ first two plays, narrowing the difference to 5 points.
The Slovenian’s two triples had the desired effect for Dallas: from that moment, every time Luka approached the three-point line with the ball, the Los Angeles defense was on top of him, allowing the point guard to start distributing assists the man on the loose.
First to Tim Hardaway Jr., then twice in a row to Dorian Finney-Smith and, later, an alley-oop to Willie Cauley-Stein that left the Mavericks just one point behind the Clippers, 40-41. Those of Los Angeles withstood the onslaught and went to halftime with a 50-55 in favor.
After the break, Porzingis, who in the first half had had a discreet performance with 6 points and 5 rebounds, sharpened his aim and scored 3 of the 5 triples he tried, including one from the central logo. But the success of the pivot did not find correspondence in the rest of the team.
In the third quarter, only three Mavericks players scored: 13 Porzingis points, 9 Hardaway Jr. points and 6 Doncic points. The rest were at zero. And the Clippers took advantage of the situation to move a little further away on the scoreboard thanks to the success of Nicolas Batum, who made the 2 triples he tried, Reggie Jackson, with 7 points, and Zubac, with 6 points.
At the end of the third quarter, the score was 78-85 that left a long fourth period ahead.
But although the Dallas team tried and got to 4 points with 3.15 left by the end of the game, 99-103, the Mavericks were unable to score a single point in the remaining time, which sentenced the game for the Clippers by 99-109. EFE
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