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When an NBA playoff series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 usually wins said series. The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers are in that scenario on Wednesday night when they meet in Los Angeles with the Mavs as short favorites on the NBA odds as LA is expected to again be without Kawhi Leonard.

Without a doubt this is a great NBA game worth betting on, so see below for my analysis of the teams in this decisive game.

Expert Pick Mavericks -3 (total 208.5)
What´s the Score? Mavericks 116, Clippers 114

Dallas Mavericks Odds -149

Really little excuse for the Mavericks to have lost Game 4 at home on Sunday, 116-111, considering Los Angeles was without All-Star Kawhi Leonard after he had played the previous two games — both Dallas wins. That just doesn’t make sense.

The Mavericks outscored the Clippers 87-61 in the game’s final 28 minutes Sunday. But when they had chances to complete the comeback, it was the Clippers who came up with key plays.

Luka Doncic was terrific in the loss with a triple-double of 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 45 minutes. Doncic continues to do it all for the Mavericks in the series against the Clippers, leading all players in rebounds and assists on Sunday. Doncic has posted a triple-double in two straight games, scoring north of 20 points in all four postseason outings. Doncic and the Mavericks found themselves in an incredibly deep hole, trailing by as much as 31 during the first half. While they rallied to take the lead at one point during the fourth quarter, the Mavericks could not hold on.

Doncic led the NBA in scoring in the regular season at a shade under 34 points per game. His scoring in the four playoff games is down slightly (29 per game). But it’s his shooting (39-for-101) that has been concerning. Luka has been dealing with some knee soreness and also a head cold in Game 4.

When asked if any sickness was hindering his energy or his play, he said: “It’s nothing. We lost the game. For the knee, it shouldn’t be an excuse. I’m out there trying to play, trying to play a lot of minutes. Sometimes you don’t have a perfect situation. I just got to do better.”

Kyrie Irving accounted for 40 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the loss. The Mavs don’t make it a game without Irving’ brilliance. He shot 9-of-17 from the field after halftime, finishing with his first 40-point playoff game since Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The lone negative for Irving was the turnover count, as he racked up seven. Irving has turned things up a notch in the postseason, tallying at least 20 points in all four games of the first-round series while surpassing the 30-point mark in the last two contests.

Derrick Jones had 14 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Since going scoreless in Game 1, Jones Mode has made at least 50% of his shots in three consecutive games. While the 2-of-3 from beyond the arc in Game 4 was a departure from the norm for Jones, it was an encouraging sight, as the Mavericks need others to step up in assistance of Doncic and Irving.

Los Angeles Clippers Odds +121

The Clippers led, 55-24, midway through the second quarter Sunday in Game 4, only to see the Mavs put on a furious rally and storm ahead, 105-104, with 2:15 remaining in the game. But the Clippers recovered and hung on to prevail, 116-111, to knot this best-of-seven series at 2-2.

With Sunday’s upset victory, the Clippers are now 8-7 this season without star Kawhi Leonard, including huge regular season wins over Cleveland, Denver and Phoenix, in addition to the two pivotal puzzling victories in this series against the Mavs. From a schematic standpoint, Mavs guard Kyrie Irving said the Clippers have a different flow when Leonard is not on the court. He is not likely back in this series or maybe even the playoffs due to a knee injury.

Leonard, who gutted out 25 minutes but did not look like his normal self in a Game 3 loss Friday, will not return to action until he is able to show that he can move the way he needs to, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said. The Clippers, who won Game 1 without Leonard, started Amir Coffey in Leonard’s place on Sunday.

Paul George stepped up big without Kawhi on Sunday, finishing with 33 points on 11-for-19 shooting (7-for-10 from deep), eight assists and six rebounds in 43 minutes. George’s point and assist totals were his highest of the series thus far, and he’s tallied at least 20 points in three straight games.

James Harden had 33 points, seven assists and six rebounds and was great in the fourth quarter. He made 6 of 8 shots in the quarter, five coming on floaters in the paint after he found a sweet spot in the Dallas defense. Harden had made just one floater in the series prior to Game 4 and shot 28.1% on 39 floaters attempted in the regular season. Dallas coach Jason Kidd said that his team’s defensive focus in the second half was to run Harden and George off the 3-point line and to settle for living with two-point shots.

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MyBookie NBA | Basketball Odds to Win

Mavericks at Clippers Info

When: Wednesday, 10 PM ET
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: TNT
Stream: TNT app

Injuries to Consider

Los Angeles Clippers

Date	Player	Position	Status
Apr 30	Tim Hardaway Jr.	SF	Out
Apr 30	Olivier-Maxence Prosper	F	Out
Apr 30	Luka Doncic	PG	Day-To-Day

Dallas Mavericks

Date	Player	Position	Status
Apr 30	Kawhi Leonard	SF	Out

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Playoffs NBA: Clippers vs Mavericks Game 3

The Los Angeles Clippers didn’t have Kawhi Leonard for Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series vs. the Dallas Mavericks but still won. Kawhi was back for Game 2 and the Clippers lost. He will play in Game 3 on Friday as the series shifts to Dallas, which is favored on the NBA odds

2024 NBA Playoffs Expert Analysis LA Clippers at Dallas Game 3 | MyBookie NBA

How to Bet Clippers at Mavericks NBA Odds & TV Info

When: Friday, 8 PM ET
Where: American Airlines Center
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: Tunein.com
NBA Odds: Mavericks -1.5 (total 51.5)

Why Bet on Los Angeles Clippers?

Despite the return of All-Star Kawhi Leonard from injury in Game 2, the Clippers were 96-93 home losers. Cleared to play for the first time since March 31, Leonard had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals but was missing his usual rhythm. Leonard shot 7-of-17 but missed all five of his 3-point attempts, the most without a make in the two-time Finals MVP’s playoff career.

“Just keep trying to get a rhythm back and obviously try to win a basketball game,” Leonard said his return. “We got pretty stagnant tonight in that fourth quarter. I want to just be able to get a rhythm with the team and get a win.”

Paul George had 22 points and four assists. The area where Leonard’s return impacted him was the shot attempts, with PG’s 14 being six fewer than his total in Game 1. He still shot 50% from the field and played 37 minutes despite some foul trouble. “Kawhi’s gonna find his rhythm,” said George. “And we’re gonna find our rhythm around him. We lost, but it is great having No. 2 back with us.”

James Harden logged 42 minutes and had 22 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Ivica Zubac had 13 points and 12 rebounds. While Harden did not miss any of his 2-point attempts in Game 2, he was 2-of-10 from beyond the arc. He wasn’t the only Clippers player to struggle on Tuesday, as they combined to go 8-of-30 from beyond the arc, and Dallas outscored them by a 42-24 margin.

Norman Powell, one of the best sixth men in the NBA, had just six points off the bench on 2-for-10 shooting. Fellow guard Terrance Mann had just five points.

Tuesday’s game was a defensive struggle until the fourth quarter, with the Clippers in particular struggling to shoot with any sort of consistency. They finished the game 32-of-87 (36.8%) from the field and 8-of-30 (26.7%) from 3-point range, and the outing could have been worse had they not had a solid game when it came to turnovers (eight) and offensive rebounds (14). The Clippers finished the regular season sixth in the NBA in field goal shooting at 48.9 percent. Tuesday’s 36.8 was the lowest shooting percentage from the field for the Clippers this season.

“So offensively just being better, playing with more pace, getting into the paint a little bit more,” Coach Ty Lue said of what he wants to see with the offense on Friday night in Game 3. “We missed a lot of shots but as far as what we did defensively, I take that every day of the week. … To hold this team to 96 points, that’s a really great defensive night. We just got to do a better job of scoring the basketball.”

Why Bet on Dallas Mavericks?

The Mavericks played horribly out of the gate in losing Game 1 by 12 points but led most of Game 2 in the 96-93 victory. After going 0-8 during the regular season in games where they scored fewer than 100 points, the Mavericks picked up a much-needed victory to even the series at one game apiece. It was Maxi Kleber who stepped up and buried a cold-blooded three-pointer with 2:08 remaining Tuesday after receiving a pass from Luka Doncic that gave the Mavs some breathing room and an 87-81 lead. Doncic followed with a three-pointer of his own, and the Mavs were up 90-81 with 1:26 remaining.

“We played 48 minutes of physical basketball,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “Both teams were under 100. It was ’90s basketball at its best.”

Doncic played 46 of 48 minutes, scored 32 points with nine assists. After breaking a 74-all tie and putting the Mavericks up for good, he assisted on 3-pointers from Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington and Kleber. “A lot of stars coming down the stretch will ignore the double team and try to beat the double team,” said Kidd. “Luka understands the game and trusts his teammates.”

Doncic now has 19 games in his postseason career where he’s scored 30 or more points in his first 30 career playoff games, and 10 of those have come against the Clippers. We usually don’t talk about Doncic’s defense because he often does play much but in Game 2, the Clippers were just 2-of-17 from the field when Dončić was the primary defender. They also missed all 11 of their field goal attempts that were contested by Dončić, which is the second-most field goal tries contested in a playoff game without allowing a successful field goal during the past five years.

Irving finished with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists. Washington also had some momentum-shifting moments for the Mavs. Washington scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, including two free throws that gave Dallas a 92-86 lead with 34.3 seconds remaining.

Center Daniel Gafford (lower back soreness) played nine minutes without scoring Tuesday. Gafford appeared to tweak something in his back during the first quarter of Game 2, gingerly walking back to the locker room for further treatment. While Gafford did return, he only played nine minutes, with Dereck Lively II starting the third quarter. He finished with seven points and nine rebounds.

The Mavs also have an injury question for Game 3 on reserve guard Tim Hardaway, who played just six minutes in Game 2 before leaving with a right ankle sprain. Josh Green would see an uptick in playing time if Hardaway sits.