Since they share rights and the heart of basketball in Los Angeles, there have been very few playoff matchups between the Lakers and Clippers over the years. Zero, to be precise. Fifteen years ago, the Lakers were one win away from creating the first “Hall Series” at Staples Center. Last year, the Clippers came within one win of meeting their rivals in the Western Conference finals. But alas, the Lakers blew a 3-1 series lead against the Phoenix Suns in 2006, and the Clippers did the same against the Denver Nuggets in 2020.
There was a chance they would play in the first or second round this year, but the Clippers somehow managed to lose their last two games of the regular season to two of the worst teams in the league to postpone a possible meeting until the conference finals. .
That’s all. Lots of what could have been and the very strangely scheduled doubleheader Tuesday night with both Los Angeles teams, who are still Las Vegas betting favorites to get out of the Western Conference, starting to play half hour apart, both trying to come back after losing the first game of their respective first-round playoff series.
On this night, the two teams were going in very different directions. The seventh-seeded Lakers beat the second-seeded Suns 109-102 in front of a raucous, mostly unmasked crowd of 11,919 in Phoenix to equal their best-of-7 series at 1-1 back to Los Angeles. .
The fourth-seeded Clippers seemed at a loss trying to resolve the brilliance of Dallas Mavericks superstar point guard Luka Doncic (39 points, seven rebounds, seven assists), trailing double digits at home for most of the night against a stunned and completely masked crowd of 6,885 at Staples Center and lost 127-121 to fall on a 2-0 hole back in Dallas.
Only 31 teams in NBA history have won the first two games of a best-of-7 series on the road. Twenty-seven of those teams won the series.
Tough odds for the Clippers, who must now look closely in the mirror to find out how these past two seasons, which began with so much promise, could have strayed so far.
Will the tantalizing battle of Los Angeles ever happen, which seemed so inevitable after teams fought over Kawhi Leonard in free agency two summers ago?
For two teams that started the night on the same hole, they finished further apart than ever. The Clippers are now two games away from elimination and in deep existential crisis. The Lakers have apparently righted the boat with dominant performances from Anthony Davis (34 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks) and LeBron James (23 points, nine assists) and an injured opponent returning home for two games at Staples. Center.
Davis blamed himself for the Game 1 loss and vowed to do better. After that game they asked him if James had given him any advice on how to respond. “We’ve been together for a while,” Davis said. “It doesn’t have to be in my ear. He saw it on my face. Since last year, he’s always been with me about perfection. [en el juego], playing hard, playing in environments like this. So it is paying off. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t need Bron to come in and tell me what to do. Now I know”.
James and the Lakers were the first to come out to play, and they had both the experience (James had never lost the first two games of a playoff series in his 14-year career) and the circumstance in their favor: the point guard from Phoenix. Chris Paul was affected the entire game with a shoulder injury.
Still, Phoenix played a competitive game behind the gritty performances of Devin Booker (31 points) and backup point guard Cameron Payne (19 points, 7 assists), plus another super efficient night from third-year center Deandre Ayton (22 points, 10 bounces on 11-13 shots).
Payne even led the Suns to a 90-89 lead late in the fourth quarter, finding Ayton for a dunk with 5:39 to go. But the championship mettle of James and Davis took over down the stretch when they scored 16 of the Lakers’ last 18 points to seal the victory on the road.
It’s hard to know, as is always the case when Paul is injured in the playoffs, how different things might have been if he had been healthy. He made just five shots Tuesday night and was out for nine minutes of the second half with a right shoulder injury that prevented him from even attempting a 3-pointer, both career-low playoff totals according to ESPN Stats & Information.
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The Slovenian had a great 39-point night to put the series against the Clippers 2-0. For his part, Leonard registered 41 points, but they were not enough to end Doncic’s power.
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With Paul injured, Booker and Payne understood that they needed to fill both the scoring gap and the leadership gap, which they did admirably. But down the stretch, they had no answer for Davis and James.
“It’s going to be tough, but we all have to step up,” Booker said. “We don’t know how his health is at the moment [de Paul]. How quickly it will recover. But everyone has to give a little more. “
The Clippers started playing half an hour later, determined to be more aggressive in attacking the rim against a consistently inconsistent Dallas defense, and for the most part they succeeded.
Leonard scored 30 of his 41 points in the first half. George had 28 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. But no one had an answer for Doncic, whose brilliant game seems to be growing exponentially.
In the first game of the series, the Clippers were reluctant to tire George or Leonard by assigning them to defend Doncic. In Game 2, they had no other choice.
Even when the Clippers resorted to their cheat code: putting Leonard, a former Defensive Player of the Year, on Doncic, the Slovenian still managed to score eight points on 3 of 6 shots.
But perhaps most damaging was that Doncic focused on finding his teammates whenever the Clippers struggled to stop him. The Mavericks reveled in undisputed 3s Tuesday, hitting 11 of 14 (79 percent) and 18 of 34 total 3s.
Tim Hardaway Jr. hit 6 of 8 3s as part of his 28 points. Kristaps Porzingis hit 3 of 4 3-pointers as part of his 20 points.
“I give Luka credit. He’s good. He’s special,” George said. “We have to rise to the occasion. If we don’t, we are lost.”
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