Marquette In The NBA Playoffs: LA Clippers 154, Dallas Mavericks 111

There’s not much to say about how this game rolled out at Walt Disney World on Tuesday night. The Los Angeles Clippers ended the first quarter on a 32-6 run to lead by 19, 41-22. The lead was 24 at halftime, 25 at the end of the third quarter, and another massive quarter — 43-25 — led to the Clippers leading the Dallas Mavericks by as many as 45 at one point before settling down on the 41 point final margin. When Landry Shamet pushed the LA lead back above 20 points with a three-pointer with 5:25 to go in the second quarter, the margin never dipped back below 20 the rest of the way, and that was that.

It was definitely a far cry from the Game 4 outcome where the Clippers had to rally to force overtime before losing on a buzzer beater by Luka Doncic. Whether it was a defensive gameplan from head coach and Marquette legend Doc Rivers or just how the ball bounces sometimes, Doncic wasn’t nearly as big of a factor as he was when putting together that 40 point triple-double. LA restrained him to only a 22/8/4 outing, and perhaps as a result, the Mavs only shot 45% from the field and 32% from long range. The bigger impact may have come from Kristaps Porzingis sitting out due to knee soreness, but he missed Game 4 as well and obviously the Mavericks didn’t miss him all that much there.

Paul George was ripping hot for the Clippers, scoring 35 points on 12-for-18 shooting, including 4-for-8 from downtown. Kawhi Leonard also chipped in 30+, getting 32 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Montrezl Harrell had what could only be called in relation to George and Leonard a “quiet” double-double getting 19 points and 11 rebounds to contribute to the victory.

Since we’re Doc Rivers focused here, we need to highlight the postgame comments from the Marquette alumnus. I’m not sure if this was prompted by a question, or if Doc just had something he wanted to say in relation to Jacob Blake being shot by police in Kenosha. I don’t know if Doc feels more of a connection to this particular incident because Kenosha is a little bit more than halfway between Marquette and where he went to high school in Chicago, or if this would have affected him the same way if it had happened in Dallas or Miami or anywhere else.

Anyway, listen to what Doc has to say.

Up Next: Doc and the Clippers have a 3-2 lead in the series now, and they’ll get their first chance to close it out on Thursday night. ESPN will have the broadcast for Game 6, and tipoff is set for 8pm Central. That will be the third game of a tripleheader that night, so that start time may be a little subject to change.