INGLEWOOD, Calif. - - — The Clippers destroy the Dallas Mavericks once again 135-104 on Saturday night. Los Angeles move to 46-32 and are in a wire-to-wire battle with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies for sixth place in the Western Conference, the final guaranteed postseason place. They now get a couple days off before a matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.
Here are some takeaways from the Clippers win over the Mavericks:
Harden, Leonard & Zubac lead an offensive explosion
The Clippers dominated by catching fire offensively being led by James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac.
Let’s start with the latter, Zubac was 11 for 11 from the floor for 25 points. He added 10 rebounds and is the first player in NBA history to have 25 points and 10 rebounds without any turnovers or misses. Zubac’s perfect shooting night is a franchise record for most makes without a miss in a single game.
Harden stuffed the stat sheet doing it all for Los Angeles. Harden scored 29 points to go along with 14 assists and seven rebounds. More impressively he only had two turnovers on the night.
Leonard joined the party but also scoring 29 points on the night. He added six rebounds and has continued his great play to finish the season.
Those three guys helped the Clippers dominate the second half to help put the game away.
Clips defense picking back up
Tonight was all about the offense tonight for the Clippers but their defense was impressive again tonight.
Los Angeles allowed just 104 points in tonight’s win and even with the return of Mavericks star Anthony Davis the Clippers put the clamps down.
They contested most of the Mavericks outside shots and didn’t let them get going from deep. Dallas shot just 7-27 from 3.
Davis and former Clipper Kai Jones combined for 45 but Dallas wings struggled due to the suffocating Clippers defense.
In their past four wins, Los Angeles is only allowing 95 points per game.
The offensive success is key for Los Angeles but it’s their defense which has been the team’s calling call. If this team can lock in on that end and play as well as they once were, look out NBA.
Finishing the right way!
The Clippers have won four in a row and six of their last seven games.
Los Angeles is actually 14-3 since their struggles during an eight game road trip in the end of February & early March.
This team is finding his stride at the right time of the year. They went from a for sure play-in team to a team with possibly chance to be a top 4 seed.
Coaching and great play from its stars is leading this team. Clipper Nation has full on belief that this could be a potential title contender if they can be healthy for the first time in a while in the playoffs.
With just four games left, let’s see if the Clippers can keep rolling and be ready for a deep playoff run.
