LA Clippers: Ranking their potential playoff opponents
1. Dallas Mavericks
There are two main possibilities where the LA Clippers could face the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Either make the second seed and the Mavericks stay at seventh or they stay at third and Mavericks jump to sixth.
The teams have already met twice this season and will meet again on March 16th. Both of the games were at Dallas and all resulted in a win.
In the latest matchup, the game went to the wire, as the Clippers narrowly escape with a three-point win as both stars played hard to win.
Although both games were relatively close, the Mavericks do not pose much of a threat to the Clippers. The Mavericks do hold the number one offensive rating in the league, which could cause a problem, but they are below-average defensively.
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Not only that, they are certainly overachieving this season. No one thought the Mavericks would be locked for the playoffs and certainly not as a possible sixth seed. They are a young team, led by a mere 21-year-old Luka Doncic, who is arguably a top-five player this year.
Regardless of how great Doncic is, the supporting cast is still young and quite inexperienced when it comes to playoffs. Their two best players have not been in the playoffs yet, but that may not mean much when it comes to Doncic, as he already been in a tougher, more pressurized environment with long postseason runs in Europe.
If both teams are at full health, I would not expect the series to go beyond six games and even that is still a “maybe”. The Clippers have better stars, better depth, better defense, and are simply a better team.
However, despite what the result of the series will look like, it will still be a very interesting one. This will be a great matchup between Leonard and Doncic. Who knows, Doncic may have a phenomenal first career series.