Los Angeles Clippers duo Kawhi Leonard and Paul George hailed the talents of Luka Doncic after downing his Dallas Mavericks side in Game One of Monday's round-one playoff contests.

Doncic made history by scoring 42 points, the most by a player making his playoff debut, but was unable to prevent his team falling to a 118-110 defeat at the NBA's 'bubble' in Orlando.

Leonard and George were influential for the second-seeded Clippers, the former recording a double-double of 29 points and 12 rebounds, while the latter chipped in with 27 points.

Both men were keen to stress the talents of their 21-year-old opponent after the game, though.

"I mean, he's great. You know what I mean? He's very poised," Leonard said. "He's very trusted on that team.

"He can get to his spots, find his team-mates, gets them easy baskets. He makes tough baskets well. He's a great player."

George added: "He's the future. We didn't come into this thinking we were going to stop Luka but what we did expect was to make it tough on him.

"That's the thing about this series. These games add up, and we're going to try to continue to wear him down as much as possible."

It was not an entirely perfect night for Doncic, though, who had 11 turnovers to his name – including five in the opening three minutes.

"Terrible," was Doncic's own assessment of his performance. "I had 11 turnovers. I've never had that much. I just want to win."

Doncic was influential in helping the Mavs claw back from an 18-2 deficit early doors and they led 71-66 with 9:10 left in the third quarter when a contentious decision turned the tide.

A foul was called on Doncic for palming the ball and was then grabbed by Marcus Morris in his haste to retrieve the ball.

Team-mate Kristaps Porzingis came rushing over and got into a shoving match with Morris, earning him a second technical foul of the game and leading to his ejection.

"KP had my back. He did it for me. He did it for his team-mate. He had my back," Doncic said.

"Not just me, but the whole team appreciates that. I don't think it was fair to take him out of the game, especially in the playoffs."

Porzingis, though, said he should have kept his emotions in check adding: "I saw him getting into Luka's face and I didn't like that. That's why I reacted.

"That's a smart, smart thing to do from their part. I've just got to be smarter and control my emotions, especially on the first one [technical foul]."

Elsewhere on Monday, Donovan Mitchell racked up 57 points as the Utah Jazz fell 135-125 in overtime to the Denver Nuggets.

That return marked a franchise record and was the third highest ever in a playoff game.

"The biggest thing was just to try to make the right plays," said Mitchell, who was 19 from 33 from the floor and 13 for 13 at the free-throw line.

However, Mitchell took responsibility for giving up an eight-second violation with a rare miscue.

With 1:54 left in the game and the Jazz up by four, Mitchell was unaware the shot clock had started at 22 seconds instead of the normal 24 because Rudy Gobert had blocked Nikola Jokic's shot out of bounds, which brought the play clock down.

Mitchell started walking the ball slowly up court and did not realise he had failed to pass midcourt in time, leading to him being pinged for the infringement.

"That's my fault as a leader and as a point guard at that time," Mitchell said. "That's terrible on my part.

"I kind of put that [on myself] there's really no one else to put it on. I was just taking my time walking it up, and I've got to be more aware.

"I think that was a crucial part of the game. At the end of the day, I'm not going to put it all on that one play, but that was a crucial part."