Mavs GAMEDAY Donuts: Clippers Game 4 Preview - The Luka Line

Dallas Mavs GAMEDAY Donuts: It's Clippers in Game 4 With A Preview In Which Luka Doncic's Ankle Is The Dominant Storyline

Dallas Mavs GAMEDAY Donuts: It's Clippers in Game 4 and it's so much about Luka Doncic ... no matter what. ...

DONUT 1: THAT ANKLE Luka Doncic is a star in the NBA. That is undeniable after two seasons. But to be a superstar, to truly be ‘the man’ on your team, not only in the bubble of your organization but in the wider view of the NBA, you have to do the things that Kawhi Leonard did on Friday night.

Game 3 of the Best-of-7 series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Clippers became a clinic for Doncic to learn what it takes to, one day, be one of the top five players in the NBA. 

Leonard showed him that throughout the Clippers’ 130-122 victory.

When your team is wounded, you bear the burden. Doncic has, at times, carried these Mavericks the past two seasons. But a seasoned player like Leonard rises to the moment at times like this. With guard Patrick Beverley out for a second straight game, a struggling Paul George and the Clippers tinkering with their starting lineup by sliding in Landry Shamut, Leonard made it clear why he is a two-time NBA Finals MVP.

This is no diss of Doncic ...

DONUT 2: QUOTABLE ... Because Luka knows exactly what we're talking about here.

“He’s always in the zone,” Doncic said of Leonard. “He’s a top-three player in the league. It’s really tough to stop him. He’s an amazing player, amazing defender. It’s really hard to stop him. I think Maxi [Kleber] is doing an amazing job, DoeDoe [Dorian Finney-Smith], too. It’s just hard. He’s an amazing player.”

Yes, even Doncic - with so few peers on his level - gets that Leonard is on a different level.

DONUT 3: BY THE NUMBERS Leonard finished with 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He elevated his play, elevated his teammates and met every challenge the Mavs threw at he and the Clippers. He was the difference.

It’s what the truly great players do, the guys that will end up in the Hall of Fame one day. Just queue up any game from the 2011 NBA Finals and look for Dirk Nowitzki.

It’s the difference between a star and a superstar, a great player and a GOAT (greatest of all time). Superstars and GOATs don’t take nights off, especially when their team isn’t at its sharpest. No one can accuse Leonard of that in these first three games. 

Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle knew the challenge coming into the series, and after three games nothing has dissuaded him from trying EVERYTHING possible to slow Leonard down.

"The kitchen sink,'' Rick keeps calling it.

DONUT 4: LUKA UPDATE That Game 3 loss for the Mavs was more about Leonard’s play than it was about Doncic’s play, if we’re being honest. 

Doncic didn’t take the night off Friday night; he never does. But he did have his ‘worst’ game of the postseason so far. 

Yet, he ended up making Mavericks history by recording the team’s first postseason triple-double — 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He surely would have made it look much more impressive if he hadn’t left the game in the second half with a left ankle injury. And a healthy Doncic might have lifted his team to that Leonard-like level in the fourth quarter, had he been able to play (and, without him, the Mavs put up a spirited comeback late to get the final score down to single digits).

Maybe.

But triple-doubles are meaningless if your team doesn’t win. They also don’t mean anything if you can’t stay healthy, and two years in, one could say that Doncic does have a propensity for rolling his ankle (the left ankle is not the ankle he’s rolled several times, Carlisle confirmed). 

You can’t hold that against him either, but the timing only solidified the opportunity for the Clippers to take control of the series. Now Doncic’s left ankle injury will be the key storyline going into Game 4. Doncic made it clear that he intends to try and play, and as for this moment, he’s questionable.

When you look back at Game 3 and look ahead at Game 4, the difference was Leonard, and that’s the place Doncic wants to be one day. He’s getting closer, but Leonard showed him, and the rest of us, there is still a ways to go. The good news is Doncic wants to get there one day, and few young NBA players have the tools and the work ethic to get there.

But, right now, it’s Game 4. Here's coach Rick Carlisle with the latest ...

And the "nothing alarming'' news means, as we write this, there is a chance Luka participates today.

But the Mavs have to expect to play with a Doncic that isn’t at 100 percent. That means, like in Game 2, the rest of the Mavs have to step up.

DONUT 5: THE LOOK-BACK Our Richie Whitt had the gamer and echoed the thoughts on the stellar play of Leonard and the Mavs’ contributions from the bench, which might have meant more in a closer game.

Our Matt Galatzan and Dalton Trigg had the postgame StepBack Mavs Podcast breakdown, too.

DONUT 6: WHY GAME 4 MATTERS: The difference between a 2-2 series tie and a 3-1 series lead is huge in a series like this, as it appears the Clippers and Mavericks are so evenly-matched - or, at least, more evenly-matched than most of us thought.

That two-game lead for the Clippers after a Game 4 win would look like a chasm to the Mavericks. The comebacks from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA playoffs are rare.

How rare? Teams with a 3-1 lead have a record of 240-11 - a 96-percent winning rate.

It’s not an insurmountable lead for the Mavericks. ... But it almost is.

DONUT 7: FIX THE FOULS Coach Rick Carlisle's jump-out from Game 3 - beyond the Luka thing - is Dallas' losses in the free-throw battle.

He's not blaming the refs, though.

"In the second quarter we fouled them too much,'' he said. "They had 13 free throws in that quarter, they had zero in the first quarter. Defending without fouling is really important in this series and in any playoff series.

"We tied the first quarter, we won the second half. Our undoing was the second quarter.

DONUT 8: KP'S NUMBERS TO KNOW - 34 and 13. Those were the points and rebounds Kristaps Porzingis put up in Game 3 on Friday night. He became the first player to record at least 30 points and at least 10 rebounds for Dallas in a playoff game since Dirk Nowitzki (34 points, 11 rebounds) in Game 3 of the 2011 NBA Finals

DONUT 9: WHAT'S ON TAP The info for today's game ...

Game Time: 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday

Location: Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando

TV/Radio: ABC, 103.3 FM

DONUT 10: THE SCHEDULE The Series Schedule and So-Far Results. ... t

Game 1: Clippers 118, Mavericks 110

Game 2: Mavericks 127, Clippers 114

Game 3: Clippers 130, Mavericks 122 (Clippers lead series, 2-1)

Game 4: Sunday, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Game 5: Tuesday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.

Game 6: Thursday, Aug. 27, ESPN, time TBD (if necessary)

Game 7: Saturday, Aug. 29, TNT, time TBD (if necessary)

DONUT 11: IF LUKA INSISTS XXX  What if Doncic says, "I'm playing'' - no matter what others say?

“Some of it is going to be based upon the MRI results, some of it certainly is based on how he feels and his desire to play or not play, and some of it is going to come down to what (trainer) Casey Smith believes is the right thing for Luka and for the team,” Carlisle said. “So that’s how we’ll gauge it.''

That sounds conservative enough. But then Rick added ...

“We’re playing for our lives here, we’re playing to tie the series (at 2-2). We need as many of our weapons as we can have available.”

Is Luka going to sit and watch his guys "playing for their lives'' and not play?

DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD “What do you mean? Can we still make a run? It’s only 2-1. Last time I checked it’s the first one to four wins.” - Mavs guard Tim Hardaway Jr.