Three Thoughts - Clippers at Mavs, Gm 4
Nearly an all-time rally sputters at the end and Los Angeles insures the series is back on.
Three Thoughts is my recap of each playoff game for any of the Big 4 teams in DFW. Usually the night of the game but sometimes the next morning, I want to offer you my main talking points from the big occasion as my inspiration, the late Grant Wahl once did on this very platform.
The Mavericks had a chance to really put the Clippers on alert and to play the final three games of the series in elimination mode. But they were unable to finish the comeback and lost Game 4 to Los Angeles, 116-111, in a game that locked the series up at two games a piece.
Game 5 is Wednesday in Southern California.
These are my Three Thoughts:
– In a game where you had a chance to grab this series by the throat, the Mavericks could not have started any slower and, frankly, probably have themselves to thank for a slow start of bad shooting, poor defense, and low energy.
Just when you think they have taken a big step forward in mentality, they play flat when they were in a good spot.
This is really my biggest takeaway from Game 4. I just don’t know how you can possibly start two games that were both Sunday at 2:30 and be so poor in the first half of both of them.
It’s just unacceptable.
In Game 1 they were down 56-29 right before halftime for a 27-point deficit. Well, in Game 4, they did it again. Down 55-24 with about 5:00 to go in the second quarter for a 31-point problem.
So, two games with early tips and you are down 58 points before the intermission?
Fifty-eight points? In two halves? How? This is not a February day game in Charlotte.
This is the playoffs! This is the only thing that is on your mind? How are we so poor offensively?