Dallas Mavericks: 3 things that went wrong in Game 5
By Drew Ivery
In a decisive and momentum-shifting Game 5 of the NBA playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks fell to the LA Clippers, allowing a record scoring night in the loss.
Just when it seems the series was just beginning to get even more interesting the Dallas Mavericks collapsed and the momentum shifted back in favor of the LA Clippers in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
The Clippers came full force Tuesday night and refused to let their foot off the gas in an absolute throttling of the Mavs in Game five.
Prior to Tuesday’s loss, in which Dallas gave up 154 points, the most points the Mavs allowed in a playoff game were: 1) 137 points against the Sacramento Kings on May 10, 2003, 2) 134 points against the LA Lakers on April 28, 1984, and 3) 133 points against the LA Clippers in Game 4 of this series on Sunday night. It also ties for the largest playoff loss in franchise history at 43 points, which happened at the hand of the LA Lakers on April 28, 1984, at Staples Center.
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
In fairness, the Clippers had a historic night on the offensive end, being the first team in NBA history to score 150+ points on 60+ percent from the field and 60+ percent from 3-pt range in a playoff game. They also set multiple franchise records: most threes in a playoff game (22), most field goals in a playoff game (53), highest field goal percentage in a playoff game (63.1 percent) and their biggest playoff win (43 points).
Though this was just a blip on the radar on social media once video surfaced of Clippers’ Marcus Morris Sr. appearing to purposely step on the injured ankle of Luka Doncic.
Doncic himself had thoughts on the situation.
"“I’ve seen it, yeah of course,” Doncic said postgame. “I have my own thoughts. I hope it wasn’t intentional. Tell me, what do you think? I just hope it wasn’t intentional. Every person is going to have their own thoughts.”"
What do you think? You be the judge.
An NBA basketball court is 4,700 square feet, and Marcus Morris steps directly on Luka’s publicly injured left ankle... coincidence? You tell me. pic.twitter.com/U6Mfb2fD5e
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) August 26, 2020
It’s win or go home for Dallas now, but they first look within themselves and dig deep to fix the things that went wrong in Game five. A few things to examine: