Dirk Nowitzki was a "lucky charm" for the Dallas Mavericks as he watched their Game 2 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, according to head coach Rick Carlisle.
Nowitzki, a 14-time All-Star, spent his entire NBA career in Dallas, winning a championship under Carlisle in 2011 when he was Finals MVP.
But the 2007 MVP retired in 2019 and so was restricted to the role of spectator as the Mavs looked to build on a Game 1 first-round playoff win on Tuesday.
His presence was enough to inspire his former team, too, with the German pictured with current Mavs superstar Luka Doncic following the game.
Doncic led the way with 39 points in an impressive 127-121 win, improving his postseason average to 32.0 points per game. That is the highest mark of any Dallas player regardless of games played, with the top spot previously belonging to Nowitzki as he scored 25.3 points across 145 playoff appearances.
There is a long way to go before Doncic can think about repeating Nowitzki's Finals run – a Miami Heat series in which he averaged 26.0 points – but the support of the team's greatest ever player is a boost.
"I saw him and [wife] Jessica in the hotel yesterday," said Carlisle, Mavs coach since 2008.
"It gives you a profound lift when you're in between the first two games of the playoffs and you see that playoff warrior who we've been through so many battles with.
"He said that he was going to be coming to the game, which was great news.
"And I certainly believe that him being there tonight was a lucky charm for us. It never hurts, never hurts."
Although Doncic was the obvious star once again, there was also a big performance from Tim Hardaway Jr, who contributed 28 points and made six attempts from beyond the arc. Both were career playoff highs.
Hardaway said: "[It was] 2-0 when Dirk gets in the building, I'll tell you that.
"Yeah, Dirk, we saw 'Dirky' earlier in the day, we knew he was there and we were happy we were able to pull out a victory.
"It's still a long series and the job is not done at all. It's just creeping into what we can become and we've just got to keep on focusing in and locking in."
Paul George insists the Los Angeles Clippers are not concerned despite falling 2-0 behind to the Dallas Mavericks in their first-round series.
The Clippers have had home advantage so far but now head to Dallas with a significant deficit.
Tuesday's Game 2 saw the Mavs run out 127-121 winners, again led by Luka Doncic.
The Slovenian had a 31-point triple-double on Saturday and added another 39 points this time, maintaining a remarkably high standard in the postseason.
Doncic's eight career playoff games have all come against the Clippers – this year and last – and he has tallied 32.0 points per game on average.
His total of 256 points is the sixth-most for any player across their first eight playoff games from 1963-64 onwards, trailing only Anthony Davis, Bob McAdoo, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored a league-high 287 in 1970.
The Clippers appear to have no answer for the 22-year-old, as George himself acknowledged.
But the seven-time All-Star, who has averaged 20.3 points across the same eight games against the Mavs, says his team are not worried.
Although the Clippers are now on a five-game losing run in the postseason dating back to last year's series against the Denver Nuggets, George said of their "level of concern": "I mean, there is none.
"It's a competition. We've got to rise to the occasion. The fact of the matter is if we don't, we're done for.
"But it's no level of concern. We've just got to play our game. We've got to play through this. We've got to incorporate our defense.
"Luka's going to get his touches. We've just got to do a better job defensively of just quieting everybody else."
The Clippers lost their final two games of the regular season to the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the bottom two teams in the Western Conference.
They therefore finished on the same record as Denver and slipped into the fourth seed, seemingly to ensure they would avoid the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending champions who they now cannot meet until the West Finals.
However, playing into a series with Dallas, who they defeated last year, only served to motivate the Mavs.
Doncic said: "I didn't know they were doing that. Somebody told me that in the first game.
"But if you want to win the championship, at the end of the day, you've got to win against everybody. So, I don't think that makes a big statement. You just go out there and play."
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said: "This time of year you shouldn't need extra motivation. NBA playoff basketball is a self-explanatory adjective.
"It is raw passion. It's all about the team. It's all about one thing. And that is a group of guys getting together and making a stand on every possession.
"If you can't get excited for that, you know, you should be in some other line of work, because they're not pulling people off the street to do these jobs."
However, George added of the Mavs: "That's the team that's the most dangerous, the team [where] I'm pretty sure everyone expected to us win this.
"They were the underdogs, and when you're a lower seed, you really don't have high expectations, so they're playing free, they're playing with confidence.
"I think we were giving them a little too much confidence, so that's on us to shut that down.
"But they're playing with it. They're playing their game. They're playing with confidence. They're making shots.
"The supporting cast for Luka is being aggressive and they're doing their job."
Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis said he wanted to "make a statement" in his side's 109-102 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday after a "terrible" Game 1 performance.
Davis led the way for the Lakers with a brilliant display at both ends of the court, contributing 34 points and seven assists, along with 10 rebounds and three blocks.
The performance came after an underwhelming return in the opening game when the Lakers were beaten 99-90, with Davis scoring 13 points and providing just two assists.
"Locked in. I know my performance the other day was terrible," Davis told ESPN. "To win a series or to win games, I can't have that performance.
"I put it on myself, as all leaders do. I wanted to make a statement this game. Come out with more energy and effort at both ends on the floor… it paid off today."
LeBron James landed a crucial three-pointer which stretched the Lakers' lead to nine points inside the final minute. He would finish with 23 points, four rebounds and nine assists as LA levelled the first round series.
Davis insisted James did not need to tell him anything about how to respond from his underwhelming display.
"We've been together for a while now," Davis said. "He don’t have to be in my ear. He saw it on my face.
"We didn’t talk much at all today. [The] first time we talked when was when we got to the arena. He just knows.
"I knew I can't have my team in that position with my performance. Since last year he's always been on me about perfection. Playing hard, playing through environments like this, it's paying off.
"It's getting to the point where I don’t need ‘Bron to tell me what I need to do. I know now. I put it on myself to be better for my team."
James added: "He responds to games like Game 1. He's not a guy who talks about it. He goes out and does it."
Game 3 will take place at the Staples Center in LA on Thursday and Davis said he expects the crowd to be "crazy exciting and loud".
Suns guard Chris Paul will hope to feature more heavily in that game after struggling with a shoulder complaint throughout Tuesday's meeting, including sitting out most of the final quarter.
"I took him out," Suns coach Monty Williams said in the post-game video conference. "It was all me looking at him holding his arm the way he was holding it.
"I couldn’t watch him run like that. He was trying to make plays, he battled, he's a warrior. I just made a decision to take him out."
He added: "He's not able to make the passes he wants. He was labouring tonight… We're hopeful it'll get better over the next 48 hours, but I don’t want to say too much."
Anthony Davis responded after his poor Game 1 by leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 109-102 win over the Phoenix Suns to square their NBA playoffs first round series on Tuesday.
Davis was self-critical after their Game 1 loss, stating "this is on me", and responded with a double-double with 34 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and seven assists.
LeBron James was brilliant with 23 points, including a final quarter threein the final minute which was the nail in the coffin. James also had nine assists and four rebounds.
The Lakers led by seven at the final change but Phoenix came hard at them, albeit largely without Chris Paul who played limited minutes in the last quarter due to a shoulder issue which hampered him all game.
But the reigning champions rallied, with a Davis block followed by a three-pointer pressing them ahead in the final minutes.
For the Lakers, Dennis Schroder had 24 points, while Andre Drummond had 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Paul only managed six points from 23 minutes in a major worry for the Suns moving forward, while Devin Booker impressed with 31 points.
KD gets it done, Mavs down Clippers
Kevin Durant got it done at both ends as the Brooklyn Nets claimed a 2-0 series lead against the Boston Celtics with a 130-108 win.
Durant was dominant with a game-high 26 points as well as five assists, eight rebounds and four blocks for the Nets who led by 24 points at half-time.
Joe Harris shot a playoffs career-high seven three-pointers among his 25 points, including 22 in the first half, while James Harden added an impressive 20 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Nets.
Blake Griffin made two big dunks for the Nets, having not attempted one in his final 25 games for the Detroit Pistons before his move.
Luka Doncic and Kawhi Leonard traded blows with massive individual performances but the Dallas Mavericks claimed a 2-0 lead in their series against the Los Angeles Clippers with a 127-121 win on the road.
Doncic scored 39 points with seven rebounds and seven assists, with able assistance from Tim Hardaway Jr who made six three-pointers among his 28 points, with Dallas moving ahead in a 30-19 third quarter.
Leonard had 41 points, six rebounds, two steals and four assists, while Paul George scored 28 points with 12 rebounds and six assists for the Clippers, who face an uphill task to turn around the series in Texas.
CP3 and Tatum injuries
Injuries to both Paul and Celtics forward Jason Tatum denied spectators the best contest possible, with the former barely entering the court in the last with his shoulder issue which remains an issue for the rest of the series. Tatum left the game in the third quarter after a poke to the eye from Durant. He only managed nine points from 21 minutes, shooting at 25 per cent from the field.
Harden's three-point playoffs feat
Harden went past Reggie Miller into sixth on the all-time NBA playoffs three-pointers made list, scoring four-from-eight beyond the arc in the Nets' win over the Celtics. The 31-year-old has 321 playoffs three-pointers, behind Stephen Curry (470), LeBron James (417), Ray Allen (385), Klay Thompson (374) and Manu Ginobili (324).
Tuesday's results
Brooklyn Nets 130-108 Boston Celtics
Los Angeles Lakers 109-102 Phoenix Suns
Dallas Mavericks 127-121 Los Angeles Clippers
Grizzlies at Jazz
Western Conference top seed Utah Jazz will look to square their series against the Memphis Grizzlies after their upset defeat in Game 1.
Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash is happy with the continued progress of their 'big three' after Tuesday's 130-108 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of their NBA playoffs first round series.
The Nets opened up a 2-0 lead with the comfortable victory, which comes after the 'big three' contributed 82 points in their 104-93 Game 1 win.
Kevin Durant starred with 26 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocks on Tuesday.
James Harden had 20 points, including four three-pointers along with five rebounds and seven assists, while Kyrie Irving added 15 points, six rebounds and six assists.
"It's about that time together on the floor, time together to understand, to gel, to make those connections that will afford us more down the line," Nash said post-game.
"It's the time and mindset we need to improve. I keep saying, we're not a team that's running this back three-four-five. We're trying to figure it out as we go.
"Each night is important, not only on the scoreboard but our development."
The Nets are 8-2 with the 'big three' in their line-up this season, but the contribution of Joe Harris, who had 22 points by half-time, to finish with 25 including seven three-pointers, cannot be underestimated.
"It's a nice luxury to have when he’s banging three balls like that and getting the crowd going," Nash said.
Boston lost star forward Jayson Tatum in the third quarter after copping a poke to the eye.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said they needed to be much better all over the court.
"We've got to be way better. We've go to get down the floor quicker, we've got to execute faster, we have to be more detailed and better in our defense," he said.
"I was disappointed in how we played versus the other night."
Julius Randle's breakout season has been recognized after winning the NBA's 2020-21 Most Improved Player which was announced on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old power forward has played a key role in lifting the New York Knicks into the playoffs, with few expecting the franchise to reach the postseason, let alone claim fourth seed in the East.
Randle averaged 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and six assists across 71 games this NBA season, ranking in the top 20 in all three categories. He set career highs in points and assists, equalling his career high for rebounds too.
In his second season with the Knicks, after earlier stints with the New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Lakers, he made a career-high 160 three-pointers, shooting at 40.1 per cent. He'd previously only made 168 three-pointers at 29.5 per cent across six seasons.
Randle, who was selected for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game for the first time, received 98 first-place votes and 493 total points from the panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.
Damian Lillard expects to see Aaron Gordon again in the remainder of their first-round playoff series after an improved defensive showing denied the Portland Trail Blazers superstar a postseason record.
Lillard had 34 points in Game 1 as the Blazers upset third seed the Denver Nuggets.
And the six-time All-Star was in sensational form to start Game 2 with 32 points by half-time, including eight three-pointers from 11 attempts.
That tied Vince Carter's mark for the most threes in a half in the playoffs and Lillard appeared certain to reach Klay Thompson's 2016 game record of 11 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Lillard himself made 10 against the same team in 2019.
But the Nuggets switched Gordon onto Lillard and Portland's main man made only a single further shot from beyond the arc as he was limited to five attempts.
It meant Lillard, who led the league with 173 clutch points this season, had only 10 points in the second half and two in the fourth quarter – both from the free-throw line.
Asked about Gordon's defense after Denver levelled the series, Lillard said: "I expect it to continue. [I need to be] just moving around more off the ball, getting more off-ball sets.
"Usually bigger guys can use their length and athleticism on the ball, but when you start to move around on flares and pindowns and things like that, typically you can get a little bit of space."
The Blazers point guard was perhaps surprised the Nuggets did not start by getting Gordon out to him.
"It's just a bigger defender, taller guy, more athletic, just a big body," he said.
"But I'm used to that; usually throughout the regular season, whoever their defensive wing or taller wing is, that's who guards me.
"Like the Phoenix game, Mikal Bridges guarded me; Golden State, Kelly Oubre guards me. I'm always against a bigger wing.
"That's an adjustment they went to in the second half. But I think they just gave me more attention, more so than it was just one guy. I'm never going against one guy."
Even before that change, though, the Nuggets were 12 points up, and they ran out 128-109 winners after 38 points from leading MVP candidate Nikola Jokic.
Denver coach Michael Malone said: "That right there was a playoff game.
"The intensity, you had two high-level players in Damian Lillard and Nikola Jokic playing at their respective levels, the crowd was great.
"But it was chippy. And that's the way it should be. We're both fighting for something. That's the way the playoffs should be. I loved it. That's my kind of game right there."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
