For about ten minutes it looked as if the Clippers could get their first win of the James Harden era against the Mavericks on Friday night. At the 2:14 mark of the first quarter, Harden came off with 14 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting (with two catch-and-shoot threes!) and the Clippers had a 10-point lead, which the Case was pushed to 12 shortly afterwards.
Over the next two minutes, the Mavericks enjoyed a miniature lineup of Norman Powell, Russell Westbrook, Terance Mann, PJ Tucker and Bones Hyland with an 11-2 run to close out the first quarter, cutting the Clippers’ lead to three.
Things got ugly from there.
Harden didn’t score another point the rest of the game, Luka Doncic scored 44 and the Mavericks cruised to a 144-126 victory to improve to 7-2 on the season. The Clippers, meanwhile, fell to 3-5 and 0-3 since trading for Harden.
To dig deeper, the Clippers’ offensive, defensive and net ratings, all of which were in the top five at the start of the season, have plummeted since Harden took over. In five games without Harden, the Clippers’ lowest point total was 118; In the first two games with Harden, LA scored 97 and 93. With Harden on the field, they have been outscored by 39 points so far.
This was also a tournament date of the season – the second for the Mavericks, who improved to 1-1 in Group B of the Western Conference, and the first for the Clippers, also in the West B group.
There has been a lot of talk about the size, or lack thereof, of this Clippers team and how strong it is on offense. This is true. Tucker at the five certainly isn’t what it once was, and all Ivica Zubac can do is tread water on the glass. Entering Friday, the Clippers allowed an offensive rebound on nearly 37% of the missed shots they forced, a five-worst mark in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass. Mason Plumlee being out doesn’t help.
That wasn’t so much the problem on Friday, when they actually won the rebounding battle on both sides (although it should be noted that the Mavericks punished LA on the boards in the second quarter when the game was still in the balance, as a tight game quickly got out of control).
What was the problem? The Mavericks, who are playing faster this season, made the Clippers look very slow by running them to death and generally operating with more urgency in the halfcourt, and they were lights out from behind the arc, where they shot 19 of 42 for one Leading by 45% and outscoring LA by 33.
Irving hit two mid-transition pull-up threes during that run late in the first quarter to take the drive downhill, and Doncic finished 6 of 9 from 3, averaging 41.4 on over 10 attempts this season % scored per game.
If this continues, be careful. Doncic and Irving have looked great so far this season, with Irving clearly committed to his role as a secondary creator/spot-up shooter in most cases and Doncic off to an MVP start. The Clippers, on the other hand, certainly still have a lot of work to do.