Not to be outdone by the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers also lost their respective Game 5 matchup against the Dallas Mavericks to move a loss away from getting eliminated from the 2021 NBA Playoffs. Will the Clippers force a Game 7? Or will Luka Doncic and the Mavs take care of business and send the Clippers to an early vacation? Check out our preview of this game below.
The Clippers’ big guns cooled down in Game 5’s 105-100 home loss to the Mavericks. Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points but was only 7 of 19 from the field. Paul George went 7 of 15 for 23 points. More painful for LA was the combined nine turnovers the two committed. Overall, the Clippers shot just 41.3 percent from the field and had 12 turnovers in Game 5. This has been a weird series so far, with the road team winning all five games. That sounds nice for the Clippers going into Game 6, but their fate will be dictated more by how Leonard and George rebound. So far in the first round, Leonard is averaging 30.4 points on 57.4 percent shooting from the field despite Game 5’s performance. George, on the other hand, is making 24.6 points per game on a 49.4 field goal percentage.
The Clippers are 9-3 against the spread in their last 12 Friday games. The under is 5-1-1 in the Clippers’ last seven games after taking one day of rest.
Luka Doncic caught fire in Game 5, as he powered the Mavs with his 42-point performance. But the win was also a credit to Tim Hardaway Jr.’s resiliency, who bounced back from a bad showing in Game 4 by scoring 20 points in Game 5. That being said, it must be frustrating for Dallas to see Kristaps Porzingis play such a small role in the victory. Porzingis only had eight points on just 3-of-6 shooting from the field. He is not playing according to the huge salary he’s getting. At his size and with his ability to stretch the floor, he should be getting more shots than Dorian Finney-Smith. Porzingis was so much better in Game 4, albeit in a loss, in which he scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. The Clippers will be all over Doncic again in Game 6, and if Porzingis steps up and makes shots early on Friday, that should put LA in bigger trouble.
The Mavs are 9-3 against the spread in their last 12 games versus a team with a record above .600. The over is 5-0 in the Mavs’ last five games following a cover.
