Jason Kidd’s students are even in the fifth match away from home 123:93 (25:24, 31:22, 33:23, 34:24) dealt with the Los Angeles Clippers, who are still struggling without Kawhi Leonard, and took a 3-2 lead.
The heroes of the last match, Paul George and James Harden, who scored 66 points together, were far from their best versions this time: the first scored 15 (4/13 field goals), and the second scored just 7 points (2/12 field goals).
And the rest of the hosts’ players, except for Ivica Zubac (15 points, 7/8 2-pointers, 1/1 penalty), were similarly terrible offensively: the entire Clippers team shot worse than 38 percent from the field and made only about every fourth three-pointer (9 /35, 25.7 percent).
Luka Doncic had a powerful performance for the Mavs, scoring 35 points (12/18 2-pointers, 2/8 3-pointers, 5/5 free throws), grabbing 7 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists.
The sixth and possibly decisive meeting of the teams will take place in Dallas.
The winners of this pair will face the Western Conference regular season winner Oklahoma City Thunder in the next round, who sent the New Orleans Pelicans with Jon Valanciunas on vacation with a dry score of 4-0.
Boston Celtics basketball players justified the label of favorites in the East.
“Cels” crushed at home 118:84 (41;23, 27:23, 30:20, 20:18) Miami Heat and won the series 4:1.
The newcomers from Florida, attacking from a distance, just hit the hoop – they hit only 3 three-pointers out of 29 attempts (10%).
In addition to the injured Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White provided 25 points for the remaining representatives of the state of Massachusetts. Sam Hauser scored 17 points, Jayson Tatum scored 16 (12 rebounds).
Bam Adebayo responded with 23 points (10-of-26 shooting) and Tyler Herro had 15 points (6-of-19 shooting).
The Celtics’ opponents in the conference semifinals will be the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Orlando Magic (3-2 there so far).
