(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Clippers didn’t break a sweat during their 109-97 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
A number of Los Angeles players did incredibly well, including James Harden (28 points), Paul George (22 points), and Ivica Zubac (20 points).
Meanwhile, the Mavericks appeared off their game, out of energy, and flat-footed.
On Monday’s “Undisputed,” NBA great Paul Pierce spoke about this, saying that the Mavericks were lackluster for most of the game, and that allowed multiple Clippers players to shine.
.@PaulPierce34 was left confused by the lackluster performance from the Mavs in Game 1 vs Clippers: pic.twitter.com/6DKM5zvVfY
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) April 22, 2024
Pierce was shocked to see Zubac play similarly to Shaquille O’Neal and he was also disappointed to see Luka Doncic score zero points in the second quarter.
From beginning to end, the Clippers looked like a team eager to make the second round while the Mavericks just appeared confused and exhausted.
This was a surprising performance from Dallas, who have been on a roll lately and were one of the most competitive teams in the West at the end of the regular season.
Now they are down 1-0 in the opening round and hope to even the series.
The good news for Mavericks fans is that the team usually doesn’t play like this.
It’s very uncommon to see Doncic go an entire quarter without scoring, for example.
Chances are that Dallas will look a lot better in the next game and their series could still be very competitive.
The Mavericks have had some tough playoff series in the recent past and they have shown that they can come back strong from a defeat and bounce back in the next game.
They will try to do that again in a few days when Game 2 rolls around.
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