The Mavericks will head home to Dallas one win away from finally getting by the Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. After getting sent home by the Clippers in 2020 and 2021, Dallas is looking to exact some revenge and delivered quite the message on Wednesday night in L.A. as they trounced the Clips, 123-93.
A game after coming close to a 31-point comeback in Game 4, the Mavs were able to get off to a much better start this time around, as the two teams traded leads for much of the first half. Things turned late in the second when Dallas ripped off a big run to close the quarter, turning a back-and-forth battle into a 10-point lead at halftime. They made that run thanks to two major factors: pushing the pace to get out in transition and four first half threes from Maxi Kleber.
On the other side, the Clippers stars got off to a poor start and never really improved, as the heroes of Game 4, Paul George and James Harden, had a truly horrific night on offense. The two stars combined for 22 points on 6-of-25 shooting, as they were just incapable of getting into any kind of rhythm as the Mavs turned up their defensive energy for the pivotal matchup.
In the second half, the onslaught continued from the Mavs, as Luka Doncic (who had a quiet scoring first half) erupted to push the Dallas lead out to 20 going into the fourth and then continued to pull away to a 30-point win.
Doncic led the way with 35 points and 10 assists, but he did get help, even if not from the usual sources. Kyrie Irving had a quiet scoring night with 14 points, but his energy and effort on the defensive end and helping to push the pace was noticeable. With Kyrie not scoring it particularly well, other Mavs stepped up in a major way to pick up the slack. Kleber hit five threes for 15 points, Jaden Hardy had 14 off the bench, and the Der[ri/e]cks (Jones Jr. and Lively II) both chipped in 12.
14-0 MAVS RUN ‼️
Kyrie gets the steal and pushes the pace leading to the DJJ poster 💥
DAL leads LAC in the 3Q of Game 5 on TNT pic.twitter.com/7VM8kYKfoJ
— NBA (@NBA) May 2, 2024
That well-rounded effort was more than enough on a night where the Clippers just had nothing offensively — as a team they shot 37.9 percent from the field and 25.7 percent from three. George and Ivica Zubac were their leading scorers with 15 points, and you probably won’t find many teams in the playoffs in 2024 that will win with a leading scorer under 20 points.
Now the series goes back to Dallas, who will look to close things out at home. The Clippers do know how to get a win on the road in this series, but they’ll need far more assertive and effective play from Harden and George to force a Game 7 back in L.A. The Mavs, meanwhile, will look to bottle up their two-way effort from Game 5 and fly it home with them to earn a date with the Thunder in the second round.