So it is impossible. This system is not valid for the Mavericks. Sustainable for only a few games, with him they can achieve a small streak that will elevate them to the positions of honor in a Western Conference in which anyone rises with a small streak, but its maintenance over time is absurd and very difficult for it to translate into something other than infinite despair. Luka Doncic simply can’t win the NBA by himself. And it seems that some Mavericks have committed themselves to doing little or nothing to change the system that, finally, is the one they want for the Slovenian to win the MVP of the season, no matter how much this does not entail winning the title or even aspiring to match those conference finals that they achieved last year and how cheap they are in that impoverished West, in which it is impossible to predict anything or vote for any team with conviction.
The Mavs lost in Los Angeles against the Clippers in what is their second consecutive loss and the third in the last four games. They leave behind that streak of seven consecutive victories that placed them in the top 4 from the West (they are still fourth with a 23-19) and with which all were unfounded smiles. After all, it was only Doncic’s extraordinary feats that led the Texans to such a number of game wins: 41.7 points, 11 rebounds and 9.9 assists for the Slovenian in that period of time, an absolute barbarity. that, simply, cannot be extended during 82 encounters of normal season in which you need anything else. Some kind of help that allows you to take a breather, a glimmer of light in which you can imagine that there is something more than a system based on itself and that when he sits on the bench for two minutes or misses two triples in a row, there is someone who raises his voice and appears to rescue the Mavs from his absence and the point guard himself from his limitations.. After all, we are talking about a human being. Although many times they insist on showing us that he is not.
Doncic finished with 43 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, 12 of 22 from the field, 3 of 9 from 3-pointers and 16 of 21 from free throws. Midway through the third quarter, he crashed into the front row and hit his shoulder, apparently without consequence, while fighting for a ball. The Mavs’ next highest scorer was Tim Hardaway with 16 points, a difference of 27 points.too great an exaggeration for a team that should be more than that. Spencer Dinwiddie stayed at 13+4+5 and Christian Wood was gray (12) and barely tried 7 pitches. Doncic’s effort also came in the last quarter, with an extraordinary 20 points that were not enough to come back and that hardly disturbed some Clippers who were already 10 up at the beginning of said period (88-78) and who, as soon as it started, brought their advantage up to 94-78 that they handled perfectly despite the blows from the Slovenian figure, that Clippers ripped off and went shamelessly to the post, with some despair but, in the end, without luck. The 107-99 with 2 minutes remaining after Doncic’s three-pointer hardly disturbed the Angelenos. The 113-101 was the final result. There were only 2 more points from the Mavericks in more than 120 seconds… and they were also from Doncic, this time from personal.
To all this, the Clippers played really well. They’re still a dysfunctional team that seems unbelievable wherever it is in the fourth season of that project that Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, their fragile bodies and their incomprehensible heads were going to lead. Kawhi, that man of crossed statements who does not want to play the regular season and who is there for the playoffs (in which he does not measure up, due to level or injuries, since 2019 with the Raptors) had his best game of the season: 33 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, establishing their tops in the first and last of these statistics. Norman Powell gave alternatives and air from the bench (27 goals, 8 of 14 shots) and everything worked strangely well under the baton of a Tyronn Lue who does not finish getting a squad as talented as it is fickle. It seems that he plays without desire, but that he is capable of having a fantastic level. Many said that it is his year and at the moment it does not seem so. Of course, they can have hope. The Clippers, to look for the light. And the Mavericks to the corner of thinking.