Dallas Ditches LA Clippers, To Meet OKC; Pattern Stays as Magic Repel Cavaliers
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 04 May 2024
Los Angeles started the playoffs with two teams, Lakers and Clippers, but now no more.
The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the remaining Los Angeles team, the LA Clippers, with a comfortable 114-101 victory at their American Airline Center home floor in Dallas to win their first round series in six games.
The fifth seed Dallas will go up against the top seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the semis in the West. The other semis pairing will pit Denver Nuggets versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Meanwhile, the top seed Boston Celtics will have to wait for the result of the seventh game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic with the winner to become their semis partner in the East.
This after the Magic again held on to their homecourt at the Kia Center Arena in the sixth game, beating the Cavaliers, 103-96.
All six games have been won by the home team. The Cavs are hoping to keep that pattern as the seventh game goes back to their homecourt while the Magic are looking to break it.
The other semis pairing pit the New York Knicks against the upstart Indiana Pacers who won their series yesterday in six games versus the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks respectively.
Dallas proved to possess superior firepower against the Clippers even with Kawhi Leonard briefly back, and more so in his absence particularly in the last two games
Playing back at their home floor did not help the Clippers as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving powered the Mavs to scoring bubbles in the first and third quarters that practically determined the game in favor of Dallas.
To put it bluntly, the Mavs simply outshot the Clippers from the floor including the three-point area where they were 40/86 and 12/33 as against LAC's 34/82 and 8/31.
Irving led the parade of scorers for Dallas with 30 points followed by Doncic with 28 points, PJ Washinhton had 14 points, big men Daniel Gafford and Derrick Lively II scored 12 points and 10 points respectively.
For the outgunned Clippers, reserve Norman Powell topped with 20 points while Paul George and Ivica Zubac managed 18 points and 17 points respectively. James Harden tossed in 16 points and Terrance Mann chipped in 14 points.
The Magic-Cavaliers game followed basically the pattern of their previous five games with the home squad taking control near the end.
Orlando was once again led by Paulo Banchero, 27 points and Franz Wagner, 26 points with strong support from Jalen Sugg, 22 points and center Wendell Carter, 11 points
For the Cavs, Donovan Mitchell tried to do the winning by himself and failed despite scoring a playoff high of 50 points.
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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