GAME 4 Playoffs 2024: Los Angeles Clippers (1-2) vs Dallas Mavericks (2-1)

[SleepingHero]

I was unable to watch this one live. I was spoiled by a friend that I should get ready to be depressed. After just finishing the recording, well he wasn't wrong.

That first half was really one of the lowest points of basketball on the season. Only superseded probably by the 1st half of game 1. Mavs really couldn't buy a bucket. I was thinking the Mavs were about to be majorly embarrassed again. Then Kyrie Irving grabbed this entire team, put it on his back, and everyone else followed. The 3rd quarter gave me life. I was on the edge of my seat the whole game only to have my heart ripped out of me when they couldn't finish the job. 

Some thoughts:

• This was a game of being able to control emotions. Seeing the reffing crew, the Mavs should've known it'd be a foul fest. This was a prime time chance for Luka to show he had matured. Luka failed the test. He lost his cool and was mentally out of the game for entire quarters. His passion was there, but he played for the whistle instead of the win. Super unfortunate.
  
• Clippers still got an incredible whistle. I mean shit, basically every call that could've gone their way did (besides the obvious Zubac foul that was called out of bounds)
  
• Another point is deserved for how generous of a whistle the Clippers had gotten on the Mavs home court. This reffing crew made me disgusted. 
  
• Kyrie Irving had a game for the history books. Unfortunately it was a loss. If the Mavs won we'd look back at this game as a signature career game.
  
• All the role players shrunk again in the moment. PJ/Gafford/Green/Exum looked horrible. DJJ and Maxi had some moments. Lively was the only one that came ready to play and we barely saw him.
  
• Did I mention how bad Luka played? He's obviously hurt. He had a crazy 3 to tie the game in the 4th. But he was rattled by the Clippers this game. Or I should say that the refs threw him off his game so badly and the Clippers were allowed to be extra physical. He played into their game plan instead of rising above it. 
  
• Clippers had probably the best shooting game they'll ever have this playoffs. 18-29 from 3 is ridiculous. PG13 was on another level of on fire. Despite that the Mavs still made it a game. That kind of shooting performance results in a win 99% of the time. Its not like the Mavs didn't defend either. The Clippers got really hot.
  
• When is it our turn to have a good shooting performance? Hell can we please just have a league average shooting performance??? Like please give me 15-38 on 3s????? 
  
• *Editors note, taking out Luka's 1-9 shooting from 3, the Mavs shot 10-26 so we basically kind of had that already......
  
  

Seriously if the Mavs were ready they'd have won this game. They won the 2nd and 3rd quarter by a huge margin. They lost the 4th quarter by a single point. Out of 16 quarters of basketball, the Mavs have won 7, tied 2, and lost 7. This is with Luka playing literally the worst basketball of his career in the last 5 years. If Luka could just get out of this funk, get back to his 30ppg on 48/37/80 splits, and Kyrie/PJ/DJJ/Lively/Gafford keep doing exactly what they're doing, the Mavs are still looking good.

Unfortunately this loss has really made me question this teams mental. This isn't the first time the Mavs have been up against the Clippers only to lose to them. I remember being up 2-0, have a 20 point lead in game 3, and then the Mavs still lost the series. Point is, there is a history of Luka-led teams not going out there and taking it. I hope for my mental health that they show up Wednesday and are ready to play cause the depression I'd be in will be record breaking.