Both the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers looked to be on a collision course to face off against one another in the Western Conference Finals before the NBA season shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now though, with the NBA playoffs finally underway, both of these teams must get their act together if they want to make a deep playoff run in Orlando.
The Clippers were thoroughly outplayed last night by the Dallas Mavericks and lost by 13 points, 127-114, evening the series at one game apiece. The Clippers are very fortunate to see this series all knotted up at one.
Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis was thrown out early in the second half of game one after getting his second technical foul. The circumstances surrounding the technical fouls on Porzingis were widely debated as many NBA fans believed the big man did not deserve to be tossed from the game.
The first of the two technical fouls was when Porzingis threw his hands up in the air after a foul call he disagreed with, and the second was when the big man got into a skirmish with the Clippers.
Following the ejection, the Clippers outscored their opponent by 13 points, 52-39. Dallas looked like a vastly different team after the ejection of their second-best player and crucial offensive weapon.
The main problem the Clippers will run into this series, and in the rest of the playoffs, is the lack of continuity between the integral parts of the team. The Clippers never took the regular season seriously as “load management” was a seemingly everyday occurrence before the season shut down and in the NBA bubble. The team looked at the regular season as a warm up to the playoffs.
For example, Montrezl Harrell did not play any games in the NBA restart and is trying to play himself back into shape during the NBA Playoffs. This is certainly a tough ask even for a player of his caliber.
The Clippers offense and defense also looked out of sorts last night. Paul George struggled mightily shooting from the field and the hallmark defense of the Clippers had no answer for many of the Mavericks bench players including Trey Burke and Seth Curry. They combined for 31 points in the game.
The Clippers are still the superior team and should advance past the Mavericks, but they need to br weary of their lack of continuity as the playoffs continue.
The Los Angeles Lakers also suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of the Portland Trailblazers in game one on Tuesday by a score of 100-93. The same issues that have plagued the Lakers all season reared their ugly head once again in the first game of this series. LeBron James can be counted on, as has been the case for the entirety of his NBA career, but the question is who else can be trusted, on this Lakers team?
Anthony Davis had a great first three quarters in game one, but he struggled down the stretch when the game was hanging in the balance. Davis has never been known as a closer at any point during his career.
Davis only scored 2 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, in addition to misfiring on two crucial free throws late in the fourth. The rest of the Lakers supporting cast did James no favors in game 1.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had a historically bad game and scored only one point on no made shots from the field. Danny Green was also unable to find his stroke as he went 4-of-12 from the field and 2-of-8 from behind the arc.
The Lakers certainly have all of the pieces to be crowned 2020 champions, but their title hopes will rest upon Davis and the rest of their supporting cast holding up their end of the bargain.
Both of the L.A. teams have more than enough time to fix some of the issues which have plagued them thus far in the NBA restart, but the clock is certainly counting down on their title chances.
Comments