Luka Doncic leads Mavs to victory over Heat to book NBA playoffs clash against Clippers

Mavs and Luka Doncic are on a roll and the Dallas juggernaut is not slowing down. With their latest win over the Miami Heat, Doncic and Co. made sure who to scout ahead of their first playoff match.

Doncic’s scintillating form continues as he and Kyrie Irving, make light work of their cross-conference opponents. Not sure if we will be seeing “Play-off Jimmy” in the first play-off round, but “Play-off Luka” will be there for sure.

Mavs beat Heat to set NBA playoffs matchup vs Clippers

Following their 111-92 win over the Miami franchise, the Mavs have their fifth Southwest Division win, confirming their postseason game with the LA Clippers. Both the Western teams are struggling to lay their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy, however, one of their dreams will be crushed after the exciting first round of the playoff tournament. This will mark their third playoff meeting in five years.

The Clippers are just ahead of the Mavs with a 51-29 record and have displayed a lot of potential to be in the knockout series. On the other hand, the Dallas squad has showcased brilliance on the hardwood night after night, with their latest game against the Miami Heat being a prime example of that.

In the first two quarters of Wednesday night’s game at Kaseya Center, the Mavs maintained their dominance and finished with a 22-point lead in the first half. The Eastern team tried to cover the gap in the opening quarter of the second half by scoring 27 points, whereas the Mavs recorded only 19, but the latter came back stronger in the finishing quarter and ended the night with the 16th win out of their last 18 games.

With Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, leading the Mavericks’ offense, it was hard for Jimmy Butler and his Miami team to hold back the Dallas side.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving’s performance vs Heat

The most talented duo, Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic aka Batman and Robin exhibited remarkable energy on the floor with their 54-point partnership and led the team to its 50th win this season.

The Slovenian guard has gained a lot of praise lately for his mind-blowing performance and dropped another masterclass, showing a glimpse of what he has in store for the Clippers. Luka scored a game-high 29 points, gave 9 assists, and 9 rebounds, missing the triple-double again by just an inch. Irving chipped in 25 points while shooting at 62.5% from the 3-point range and 66.7% from the floor.

Irving created many attacking opportunities while the franchise planned on pulling back Luka from the Heat’s attack. The squad executed great defensive strategies when Luka waited on the bench with Irving carrying on his offensive duties. Whenever both the players came together, they tried to rip the Heat’s defense. With fewer opportunities within the 3-point arc, Luka smashed 15 threes and Irving shot 8 disappointing the home-court fans.

P.J. Washington, Derrick Jones Jr., and Daniel Gafford all contributed 12 points for the Mavs whereas only Heat’s Tyler Herro (21 points) scored more than 20 points, which resulted in a disappointing loss.

With both the Mavs and Clippers having two games remaining in the regular season, home-court advantage is yet to be decided, but by April 15 we will know who will be going into the play-off clash with the advantage.