Mavs, Pacers Forge Ahead, 2-1, in Matches to Watch
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 27 Apr 2024
The #5 Dallas Mavericks defeated the #4 Los Angeles Clippers, 101-90 in the West, and the #6 Indiana Pacers beat the #3 Milwaukee Bucks in overtime, 101-98 to forge ahead, 2-1 in their respective first-round series, many have projected as "Matches to Watch".
The reason for the Mavs vs. Clippers brouhaha is their matching starters, notwithstanding the return of Kawhi Leonard, who also had some unfinished business with Kyrie Irving, now Luka Doncic's chief lance bearer at Dallas.
The to-do with the Pacers vs. Bucks is the opportunity for Milwaukee to get back at Pascal Siakam for his leading role in the Toronto Raptors beating the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks in the 2019 Eastern Finals.
The opening games won by the Bucks and the Clippers in their homecourt do not inspire confidence that they will be matches to watch. But with both Indiana and Dallas snatching victories on their opponent's homecourt to square their series before their turn to host the next two games, the interest has gone up again.
Especially after today's victories by the Pacers and the Mavs.
Doncic and Irving once again carried the scoring load for the Mavericks but they assisted their teammates often to also involve them in point making, especially big men Daniel Galford, Derrick Lively II, and PJ Washington.
A more balanced point production for Dallas enabled the Mavs to pull away from the Clippers, who struggled offensively due to the underwhelming performances of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
What happened was that center Ivica Zubac and point guard James Harden had to carry the cudgels for the Clippers. That proved inadequate, especially with the Mavs outscoring Los Angeles in the second quarter, 36-18, leading to a 54-41 halftime lead. The Mavs sustained the initiative up to the final buzzer.
For the Mavs, Doncic scored 22 points and 10 rebounds plus 9 assists while Irving had 21 points and 6 assists. Derrick Jones had 11 points and Washington scattered 10 points while Galford and Josh Green chipped in 8 points each.
For the Clippers, Harden and Norman Powell scored 21 points each with Zubac putting up 19 points. George and Leonard just managed 7 and 9, respectively.
The Bucks-Pacers game was closely fought with the regulation ending at 111-all as Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakam dueled with Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard in point making, and Myles Turner and Obi Toppin jousted with Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis at the post.
Halliburton provided the difference in overtime as Middleton tired out with the injured Lillard deferring to him in shot making.
Turner topped for the Pacers with 29 points followed by Halliburton with 19 points, Siakam with 17 points, Andrew Nembhard, 16 points, Andrew Nesmith 13 points, and Toppin, 15 points.
For the Bucks, Middleton had a playoff high of 42 points while Lillard, despite getting injured, put in 28 points. Portis scored 16 while Lopez had 14. Patrick Beverley came off the bench and contributed 11.
In the other scheduled game, the Minnesota Timberwolves moved a win away from advancing to the semi-finals in the West by trouncing the Phoenix Suns, 126-109 in Phoenix for a 3-0 lead in their series.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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