The Clippers took a page out of the 1989 Bad Boy”s Detroit Piston’s playbook, but in their Game 3 victory over the Mavericks the Clippers did not have the Jordan Rules, it was the Doncic Rules. There is only one rule and that rule is to beat up Jordan or in the Mavericks case Luka Doncic. How many times did Doncic get knocked down on his back in Game 3? Besides him shooting three pointers, every time he stepped into the paint he was getting beat up until his body wore down and he twisted his ankle trying to guard Kawhi Leonard. Why was he trying to guard Kawhi Leornard in the first place? Doncic hopped on one foot off the court, into the locker room, and with him went Dallas’ chance of beating the Clippers. Dallas let the Clippers beat up Doncic all game long, that is your quarterback, Luka is the Mavericks star player, the team cannot let your quarterback get knocked down all game, get injured and expect to win.
The Clippers were able to slow down the tempo for the most part and when the Mavericks started to pick up the pace and start to make a comeback the Head Coach of the Clippers, Doc Rivers, would call crucial timeouts throughout the game to stall the Maverick’s momentum. Which is one of the many things that good coaches do. Everyone on the Clippers stepped up except Paul George, who played 38 minutes with only 11 points, for the guy who was supposed to be the Clippers’ Scottie Pippen he has been the biggest disappointment so far for the Clippers, he is playing like an over hyped sixth man.
Role players won this game for the Clippers seven players had over ten points and the role player who shined the brightest to me and stepped up in a big way was Landry Shamet; he was there to counter crush the Mavericks’ dreams of making a comeback. Every time the Clippers needed a basket to secure their lead on Dallas Landry Shamet came through with either a three or even a posterising dunk on the Dallas Center Boban Marjanovic, who was completely shut down last night by the way with only 3 points and 2 rebounds. Dallas got man handled in Game 3. Dallas’ weakness was exploited. They have these gigantic big men who have no post presence. Dallas has no bangers, they have no rebounders, they need a Tyson Chandler, they need a Dennis Rodman, but those type of players are no where to be found on the Dallas bench I’m afraid. And yet, even without a dominant big man Dallas kept it close.
It does not look good when Luka Doncic who is a guard, who had another triple double by the way, out rebounds Boban their center. Kristaps Porzingis also had a great game with 34 points and 13 rebounds, but most of those points came from outside the paint. If 7’3 Porzingis wants to be a shooting guard fine, but who is going to be in the paint getting rebounds when your center is out behind the three-point line? Why was the point guard Luka Doncic trying to guard Kawhi Leonard, who is a power forward in the paint? Maxi Kleber played Center for the Mavericks in game 3 for 35 minutes, almost the entire game and only had 4 rebounds. Dallas’ big men forgot to eat their Wheaties, they were relying too much on Doncic, pushing him to do too much, forcing Doncic to come into the paint to get rebounds and play defense, to do their jobs as well as running the offense.
Doncic getting hurt is the Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle‘s fault and if Doncic is out, Dallas is done.
