SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Congratulations to the Boston Celtics, they can break out the brooms for sweeping the rival Philadelphia 76ers in four games of the restarted shortened National Basketball Association season now in the first round of the pieced-together playoffs at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
But there were three other games played Sunday, and the “game of the day” was the Western Conference one between the 2nd-seeded Los Angeles Clippers and 6th-seeded Dallas Mavericks. It went from an ongoing rout that had the Clippers up by 21 points in the second quarter, then losing,135-133, in overtime on a buzzer shot.
Believe it, the series is now all tied at 2-2. What is also remarkable is that the Mavs had to do this with their 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis, an All-Star starter who is an inside and outside threat, sat the bench with his left arm bandaged around his elbow area.
But Luka Doncic was there and it was he who flung in the winning bucket as the clock rang down with 0:3.4 remaining. This was the topping on the magical show he put on with his left leg bandaged around the knee. At times he limped, but he made the plays that brought this unbelievable comeback. He scored the game-high 43 points in various ways, from beyond the 3-point line, from driving, stopping, and sending in a short jumper, from taking the ball to the basket, and from converting foul shots. He rebounded, he made a game effort to defend his target was the basket when he had the ball, but he did hand out 10 assists along with 13 rebounds for a triple-double.
It was about midway through the third quarter that Dallas had the versatile 21-year-oldDoncic take over. His team was down 82-68 at that time, but it kept clearing the way forDoncic, and so he, Tim Hardaway, Jr.,and Trey Burke and Seth Curry started flinging in shots from outside, the lead was cut to 88-85 entering the fourth quarter. Dallas then took off, putting together a 12-2 run to go 104-94, and with 5:38 to go led by 12.
But Kawhi Leonard followed a time-out by taking over the offense. He hit three-straight from the 3, a pair from the corner, and made good on 6-of-7 free throws. But he missed on a 3 with the score tied at 121, and that forced the OT. No slowdown here. There were three ties and six lead changes, the last lead for the Clippers was at 133-132, on a 3-pointer from the corner by Marcus Morris, and then, after a time out, the Mavericks quickly got the ball to Doncic, who took a few dribbling steps going forward, released the ball, and was then mobbed by his team.
Leonard finished with 34 points and Lou Williams chipped in with 28. but starting forward Paul George did not have a good game and was riding the bench through the overtime. As for Doncic, he is a 6-7 point guard who played European League ball since his teenage years and against older. tougher opponents, and who wears number 77.
As for the Boston-Philadelphia sweeper, it was a close Eastern Conference contest until the 3rd-seeded Celtics went on a late run in the third quarter, That came when 6th-seeded Philly closed to within five points of a 14-point deficit that resulted in Boston going on a 14-0 run and the Sixers were unable to get the gap under double figures. No matter how hard the Sixers tried, it brought missed shots, turnovers, while Boston continued to make shots and wind up on top, 110-106.
Kemba Walker set the tone for the Celtics with 20 of his game-high 32 points coming in the first half. And as was the case in the previous three games, it was another hot shooting game for Boston on all fronts.Jayson Tatum came up with 28 and took down 10 rebounds, and Jaylen Brown and Daniel Theis contributed 16 and 15 points, respectively. The Celts had a 42-39 advantage in rebounds and made good on 12 of 35 3s.
Philly hung around until its Tobias Harris went down after colliding with a Boston player and lacerating his right eye that required stitches, but he was conscious after hitting the floor with a bounce and able to return to the court after leaving the locker room. He wound up with 20 points, but couldn’t get his team closer. Teammate Joel Embiid contributed the team-high 30 points and brought down 11 boards, but the Celtics never faltered and will most likely face the 2nd-seeded defending champion Toronto Raptors.
Toronto, too, looked for a sweep after already defeating the Brooklyn Nets three times in the best of seven series.
And once again the Nets hung around until once again, Toronto got behind its balanced attack and experience to take over and increase its lead with each quarter. It was on its way to a sweeper versus sweeper second round with Boston via a 150-122 romp for its first even playoff sweep.
Knowing it will welcome in Kevin Durant and Kylie Irving on next year’s team, and return starting guard Spencer Doliddle, 6-11 Jarrett Allen and the talented 6-6 Caris DeVert, Brooklyn went mostly in this one with G League players, some members of the regular season roster, and even signed up 36-year-old former sharpshooter Jamal Crawford, but he played only five minutes.
Not knowing if Jacques Vaughn will be resigned as head coach, the Nets do have thoughts about what next season would bring. They know what All-Star players like Durant and Irving can bring to this franchise. And the Raptors continue to be slighted, so now they are out to achieve the recognition they deserve as defending champions despite being north of the border.
Then came the surprisingly tight Western Conference series matching the 3rd-seeded Denver Nuggets and the 5th-seeded Utah Jazz, who ran off back-to-back wins after losing the opener.
