It’s a trilogy now.
The LA Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks will face each other in the first round of the NBA playoffs for the third time in five postseasons. The series begins with Game 1 on Sunday in Los Angeles. While both rosters are profoundly different from the ones in this matchup’s 2020 and 2021 iterations — which the Clippers won in six and seven games, respectively — many main characters remain.
It might be the league’s most highly anticipated opening-round clash, just for the sheer star power present and due to these team’s ceilings as dark-horse contenders. Tim Cato and Law Murray, who cover the Mavericks and the Clippers, respectively, for The Athletic, discuss the series.
Tim Cato: Oh, no, it’s happening again. Law. It’s going to be a matchup that happens for eternity.
Let’s start here: From your LA-based perspective, what would have been the Clippers’ preferred matchup? Where did Dallas rank among the potential foes?
Law Murray: First of all, I am pleased to be doing this with you again. Even if it comes with the Mavericks’ fan base groaning over being reminded of the first two series and the Clippers fan base doing the same for Luka Dončić’s torrid play in those matchups.
Shortly after the All-Star break, the Clippers were fourth and the Sacramento Kings fifth in the Western Conference. That was how I thought the season would end when the year started, and I believe the Clippers would have preferred the Kings due to how well their offense operates against Sacramento, as well as their superior depth. But the Kings are buried in the Play-In Tournament, and the Mavericks had a lot to do with that after beating them twice in March.
I mentioned the Mavericks were the more ideal matchup for the Clippers in comparison to the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans, the teams that finished sixth and seventh in the West. That isn’t to declare that this series will be easy for the Clippers, quite the contrary. Even though the Clippers beat the Suns up three times when rolling out full rosters, Phoenix has three premier scorers in Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant. Dallas has a better backcourt than Phoenix, but the Mavericks have P.J. Washington at power forward. Likewise, the Mavericks have stars in the backcourt the Pelicans don’t, but New Orleans has diverse scoring size at forward in Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, which the Clippers have struggled with for years.
There’s no focus like the motivation that comes with trying to avenge playoff losses, and Dončić has more shot creation and a different head coach this time. That’s going to be hard on the Clippers. But any matchup was going to be hard. It’s the playoffs.
Cato: Especially these playoffs, in this conference.
Several weeks ago on my podcast, I named the Clippers as the non-Denver team Dallas should least want to see. It was before the Mavericks’ furious winning to end the year and before the Clippers’ injury uncertainty. But I still think the Minnesota Timberwolves — or maybe even the Oklahoma City Thunder — would have been preferred to L.A. due to specific matchup advantages.
To me, there are two reasons why: 1) This season, the Clippers have shown the league’s highest level of sustained play outside of Denver, and 2) Kawhi Leonard is the conference’s likeliest player, outside Nikola Jokić, to outplay Dončić for a series.
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With that in mind, what’s the latest news on Leonard’s health? Is there any other notable news regarding their roster?
Murray: It’s not a Clippers postseason without the intangibles of health rearing its head. And Leonard’s health is more unstable now than at any point of this season, which is quite unnerving.
Leonard last played on March 31 at Charlotte, the first three-game win streak the Clippers had since the trade deadline. A…
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