Mavs hope stars align in their favor in Game 2 against Clippers

LOS ANGELES – No way do the Dallas Mavericks anticipate the stars aligning exactly right for the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 2 of this best-of-seven series the way they did in the series opener Sunday.

Mostly everything in the first half went sideways for the Mavs in Game 1, which the Clippers won, 109-97. The madness included:

*The Mavs fell behind, 34-22, after the first quarter and were behind by at least 10 points the rest of the way.

*The Clippers were a mind-boggling 18-of-36 from three-point land for 50 percent, and just kept nailing one three-pointer after another after another after another.

*The Mavs scored a playoff franchise-low eight points in the second quarter when they missed all nine of their three-point attempts and were just 2-of-21 from the field.

If any one of those aforementioned items had been reversed and gone the Mavs’ way, coach Jason Kidd knows the final results could have easily been in his team’s favor.

“I think we all can talk about the second quarter, but getting off to a better start on the road is something that we’ve talked about,” Kidd said. “But we were better in that third quarter coming out after halftime, and that’s just something that we talked about is understanding what was good after halftime and what we have to do better on the road to put ourselves in a position to win.”

One thing the Mavs have to do better is shoot the ball at a more effective rate. They only made 38.8 percent of their shots in Game 1 and were just 30.3 percent (10-of-33) from the three-point line.

Poor shooting like that won’t cut it against a quality team like the Clippers.

“We got some great looks,” Kidd said. “Again, we missed some layups. We’ve got to be able to take care of the ball. And then I thought we got to the free throw line.”

Another thing the Mavs did is outscore the Clippers in the second half, 67-53. If they can just pick up where they left off in the second half of Game 1 and carry it over into the start of Game 2, they’ll be in an excellent position to gain a split in this series before it moves to American Airlines Center for Games 3 and 4 this weekend.

“I think just talking about some of the things that we had success with on both sides – offense and defense — but I think again just learning from that second quarter,” Kidd said. “We’ve always learned from our mistakes or our success, and so that’s understanding what we have to do.

“We have to be better on the offensive end if we have any chance of beating the Clippers.”

And the Mavs know they can’t score eight points in any quarter.

“Each rebound, each turnover, all that counts when it stacks up at the end of the game,” center Dereck Lively II said. “There was a time in the second quarter where we all were kind of like shocked with what we were doing.

“We weren’t making anything, but we stuck to what we knew who we are. We made shots (in the second half), and we know if we keep putting them up they’re going to fall. And we tried to fight back and bring it back. We didn’t try to quit, we didn’t just lay down. No matter how much we were down we were going to be back.”

In the end, the Mavs came up short in Game 1. But the second half showed the Mavs if they can somehow compete and play aggressively for 48 minutes, they’ll probably be able to fly back to Dallas with this series tied at 1.

Here are some other nuggets surrounding Game 2 between the Mavs and Clippers.

*Clippers center Ivica Zubac scored a playoff-high 20 points and added a game-high 15 rebounds in Game 1. The Mavs hope to do a better job of containing Zubac in Game 2. “He’s going to try to play bully-ball with us,” Mavs center Dereck Lively II said. “We got to be able to box him out and take him off the glass. We got to be able to make sure that whenever he’s coming in on those tough shots, we got to be able to affect him and make him uncomfortable. We know what he can do, we’ve seen what he can do. Now we just got to be able to adjust and be sure we do a better job in the second game.”

*The Mavs know they must find a way to get some production out of someone not named Luka Dončić or Kyrie Irving. Dončić and Irving combined for 64 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in Game 1. The rest of the Mavs combined for just 33 points, 21 rebounds and four assists. While the Mavs obviously need Dončić and Irving to continue applying pressure to the Clippers’ defense, the others have to do their part, too.

*Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is listed as questionable for Game 2 with inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee. Leonard hasn’t played in a game since March 31.

*Lively played 19 minutes in Game 1 and finished with three points, four rebounds and a game-high three blocks. It was Lively’s first game since suffering a sprained right knee during a game on March 31 against Houston, and he said he felt great. “Coming back from a couple of weeks off, I thought I was going to be a lot more winded than I was,” Lively said. “I thought I was going to be a little slower with my steps. But I just kind of was getting right back into the groove of things.”

*Clipper future Hall of Fame players — Paul George (Palmdale, Calif.), James Harden (Los Angeles), Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles) and Russell Westbrook (Long Beach) – were all born in Southern California.

*In 2022, the Mavs dropped Game 1 in each of their three playoff series. The Mavs lost Game 1 to Utah in the first round of the 2022 playoffs, but came back and won that series in six games. They also dropped the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals to Phoenix, then rallied to win that series in seven games. But the Mavs lost the first three games of the Western Conference Finals to Golden State and eventually lost that series in five games.

DALLAS MAVERICKS (0-1) at LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (1-0)

When: 9 p.m., Tuesday

Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles

TV: BSSW, TNT

Radio: 97.1 FM The Freak; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)

X: @DwainPrice