Clippers’ season ends with Game 6 loss to Mavericks – Daily News

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By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Sports Writer

DALLAS — On a night when the Clippers were again playing without one of their stars, they needed more from the healthy ones in order to extend their season.

As it turned out, they didn’t get enough from either one.

Luka Doncic had 28 points and 13 assists and Kyrie Irving scored 28 of his 30 points in a second-half surge while Paul George and James Harden endured a poor shooting night as the Dallas Mavericks finished off the Clippers with a 114-101 victory in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series on Friday night.

With Irving alongside him this time, Doncic did what the Slovenian superstar couldn’t three years earlier – close out the Clippers. The fifth-seeded Mavericks beat the Clippers for the the first time in three first-round tries over the past five seasons and will open the Western Conference semifinals at the top seed, Oklahoma City, on Tuesday night.

“We’re pushing each other off the court to be better, and then when we get on the court it’s just like synchronicity,” Irving said. “It feels good.”

George had 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting (2 for 10 from 3-point range) to go with 11 rebounds for the Clippers, who won the first two times they played without All-Star Kawhi Leonard in the series but didn’t have enough scoring punch in the last two he was sidelined by right knee inflammation.

Harden had 16 points and 13 assists but was just 5 for 16 from the field and missed all six of his 3-point attempts as the Clippers were eliminated in the first round for the second consecutive season despite the early-season trade for the 10-time All-Star.

“A lot of emotions and things going through my mind right now,” Harden said.

Norman Powell scored 20 points for the Clippers, and Ivica Zubac had 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Irving, added at the trade deadline last year for the kind of playoff run the Mavs hope they just started, spent plenty of time guarding Harden in the first half, when he had two points on just six shots.

The eight-time All-Star opened the second half with a layup to break a 52-52 tie, then Doncic hit a 3-pointer after going 0 for 7 from deep in the first half. Following a Clippers turnover, Irving hit a 3-pointer for an eight-point lead after Dallas had lost a 13-point advantage in the second quarter.

The Mavs outscored the Clippers 35-20 in the third quarter – the same quarter that fueled the Game 5 win in Los Angeles for a chance to clinch – and pushed the lead to 20 early in the fourth.

Irving gave Dallas its biggest lead with a flashy four-point play when he hit a leaning 3-pointer as he was bumped by P.J. Tucker and made the free throw for a 106-82 lead.

The Clippers answered with an 11-2 run to get within 13 but never seriously threatened a big comeback in the final minutes after George, Harden and Zubac each played at least 22 minutes in the first half to get them back in the game.

“It caught up with us, and you saw that in the third quarter and into the fourth,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We just ran out of gas.”

Doncic, who also has dealt with illness in addition to a sore knee, was 9 of 26 from the field and just 1 of 10 from behind the arc while going 9 for 11 on free throws. Irving was 10 for 13 from the field after halftime.

“Terrible, man. I need some rest,” Doncic said before walking away from a TV interview – and into a three-day break.

Now Doncic will try at least to match his long playoff run of two years ago, when Dallas stunned Phoenix with a Game 7 blowout in the West semis before falling to eventual champ Golden State in five games in the West finals.

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