Mavs vanquish Clippers on the road to take 3-2 lead

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic scored 20 of his 35 points in the second half and added 10 assists and seven rebounds, propelling the Dallas Mavericks to a 123-93 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 5 on Wednesday night and a 3-2 lead in their first-round series.

Maxi Kleber hit five 3-pointers and Kyrie Irving added 14 points for the Mavericks, who clamped down on the Clippers defensively and won decisively in Los Angeles for the second time in the series. Dallas moved to the brink of its first playoff series victory since 2022 and only its third since winning the NBA title in 2011.

“I think it was a very big game,” Doncic said. “We win, and now we’ve got to win one out of two. We’ve got to go back to Dallas and play the same way.”

Doncic is playing on a sprained right knee that limited him at times in the series. He also revealed that he was feeling symptoms of an apparent illness that congested him and forced him to blow his nose repeatedly during Game 5.

But the Slovenian superstar clearly got more comfortable and more dangerous as the night went on in downtown Los Angeles. He had 14 points in the third quarter while the Mavs stretched their lead to 25 and eventually took an 89-69 advantage into the fourth, where the Clippers never threatened to do an imitation of Dallas’ rally back from a 31-point deficit in Game 4.

Doncic said his illness made things “tough,” and his knee is “not really good.”

“But you talk about adrenaline in a playoff game,” he added. “Once you get started, you want to do everything you can to help your team win. I just wanted to keep going.”

Game 6 is Friday night in Dallas. If necessary, Game 7 will be back in Los Angeles on Sunday.

When these teams met in the first round three seasons ago, Dallas also won Game 5 on the road and traveled home with a chance to clinch. The Clippers won the next two to claim the series in seven games.

Paul George and Ivica Zubac scored 15 points apiece for the Clippers, who played their second straight game and third of the series without Kawhi Leonard. LA’s leading scorer has right knee inflammation at the most critical point in the season, and his teammates were unable to win without him in Game 5 after doing it twice earlier in the series.

Leonard’s fellow stars couldn’t step up in Game 5, and Dallas’ defense deserved much of the credit. The Clippers hit went 9 for 35 on 3-point attempts in Game 5 after making 18 3s in Game 4.

“I think it was just the carryover from Game 4, talking about it, watching it,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “Being able to play with pace on offense, but just doing a good job of taking the 3 out of the game.”

George went 4 for 13 and missed four of his six 3-point attempts, failing to assert himself offensively except during a brief stretch of the third quarter.

Harden had another perplexing playoff performance, going 2 for 12 and missing six of his seven 3s. Russell Westbrook also struggled off the bench, missing his first eight shots before finally scoring in the third quarter.

Both teams pulled their starters midway through the fourth quarter, grabbing rest for the potential closeout in Dallas.

Although Doncic and Irving each missed their first three 3-point attempts in the first half of Game 5, the Mavs jumped to a 10-point halftime lead. Dallas got 12 first-half points from Kleber, the German shooter who famously hit a buzzer-beating 3 in this building to beat the Lakers just over a year ago.

George and Harden both struggled with their shots under Dallas’ signature defensive pressure early, but the Clippers’ supporting cast kept it close. Zubac, the Clippers’ veteran center, had yet another unusually big offensive game against the Mavs, scoring 13 points in the first half while making his first six shots, while Terance Mann added 11 points before getting shut out in the second half.

Doncic scorched the Clips for 14 points in the third quarter, stretching Dallas’ lead to 23 points during a 17-2 run. Los Angeles missed nine consecutive shots and committed four turnovers during the 6:23 between their first and second baskets of the second half.

Leonard missed the Clippers’ victories in Games 1 and 4, but played haltingly in LA’s losses in the second and third games of the series. The results weren’t incredibly surprising: Although Leonard had been mostly healthy this year until missing the final eight games of the regular season, the two-time NBA champion’s frequent injuries over the years have left his teammates comfortable playing without him.

But nothing worked in Game 5, leaving the Clippers facing the possibility that it was their last as the home team at the downtown Los Angeles arena they share with the lakers. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s palatial Intuit Dome opens next season in Inglewood.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA