How Luka Doncic's Mavs Used Small Ball vs. Clippers

The Dallas Mavs successfully deployed a small ball lineup around Luka Doncic in the second half of Wednesday's loss against the Los Angeles Clippers.

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks successfully deployed a small ball lineup in the second half of Wednesday's loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, with Derrick Jones Jr. and Grant Williams in the frontcourt, nearly achieving a 22-point comeback. Could the Mavs utilize it more in the future?

After struggling to execute with Dwight Powell at center in the first half, the goal of deploying a smaller group was to have more speed to swarm in the half-court to make extra efforts defensively, particularly after doubling, forcing turnovers, close possessions, and getting out in transition. The Mavs outscored the Clippers by nine points in the 21 second-half minutes without Powell on the floor but were outscored by seven in the three minutes he played.

"I like what the group did [while] short-handed. Everyone played and put us in a position to fight," Kidd said. "There's a lot of character in that locker room [with] understanding things weren't going well for us in the first half. But I thought we turned it around in the second half. No one feels bad for us that we're short-handed, but those guys fought and put us in a position to win. We just came up short."

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The Clippers tried to keep Izica Zubac on the floor as long as possible while the Mavs deployed their small ball lineup coming out of halftime. With Dallas managing to wreak havoc in the half-court to create transition scoring chances and just extra possessions, Los Angeles later opted to go small. 

"Yeah, we built the lead with traditional 5 with [Dwight] Powell in the game. Like I said, J-Kidd [Jason Kidd] made a good adjustment going small at halftime, and we weren’t going to adjust to them,' Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. "We were going to see how it worked out first. They went on a pretty good run, made some shots. 

The Clippers acknowledged the threat the Mavs posed by going small, sending double teams, and blitzing pick-and-rolls. Since they weren't getting stops in the paint regardless, taking Powell off the floor made the defense quicker, enabling them to make those extra rotations in the half-court to recover after those initial aggressive approaches at the point of attack. 

“They double-teamed us. They blitzed the pick-and-rolls," Leonard said. "They flooded the sides, and they got us stagnant. And then we started playing slow. And then we pretty much saw what they were doing and started getting stops on the defensive end and just got out in transition.”

When the Mavs returned to a small ball lineup to close the game, the Clippers did the same, making it challenging for Dallas to execute. Whether it was Kawhi Leonard getting by his man in clutch time to create a finish for a teammate or dunk it himself, or just a general inability to sustain crips play, the Mavs gave up a 13-2 run to end regulation.

"The last seven minutes of the game, we decided to go small to try to be able to fly around defensively," Lue said. "And then offensively, put them in a tough position because now they had to guard our smalls. So, we did a good job with that.”

Dallas led 105-104 with 4:40 left to play, but coming out of the timeout, the Clippers figured out how the Mavs would blitz James Harden in pick-and-roll coverages and countered by flashing in the middle and attacking in the post with Leonard against mismatches. 

“Yeah, that timeout and figuring out how they were guarding James [Harden] was key," Clippers guard Norman Powell said. "They were blitzing him up top, two-man flashing in the middle and making him play and then giving the ball to Kawhi [Leonard] in the post-up and him being able to attack off the double team and us reading those lanes that are opening up when they’re helping was able to execute offensively.”

With the Mavs not being crisp with defensive rotations, particularly when trying to double-team, the Clippers saw a major opportunity to close the game by playing through Leonard. At one point, Luka Doncic was clearly upset with Grant Williams for not being in a position to help after Leonard attacked the baseline on a face-up drive before his late-game dunk, proving to be the final exclamation on Los Angeles' victory. 

“Just Kawhi [Leonard] bringing us home. I thought it gave us great spacing on the floor when they were trying to double-team," Lue said. "They really didn’t know where they wanted to double from, and then when they started blitzing James [Harden], having T-Mann [Terance Mann] and then short-rolling their pocket, and being able to deliver to him and make plays, was really good for us. It got Kawhi on a dunk, on a lob, and then got a layup one time. 

The Clippers' defense focused on having the necessary speed to load up the gaps against Doncic one pass away, making him see a crowd if he chose to attack. It enabled them to switch 1-5, preventing him from seeing drop coverage, while also having the speed to send late doubles to get the ball out of his hands frequently. 

"Just having changed the game up a little bit," Lue said. "J-Kidd [Jason Kidd] did a great job going small getting those guys back in the game, and then, like I said, we went small at the end to try and just be faster to fly around with Luka. To switch the 5 to get the ball out of his hands, being more active, and then putting more pressure on them defensively, having to guard us small when Kawhi was pretty much the biggest guy on the floor.”

If the Mavs deploy a small ball lineup more frequently going forward, it'll naturally need to come with a greater understanding of making rotations defensively. Doing so would be lifted by having more available talent around Doncic when he and others return to the lineup after missing Friday's game against the Houston Rockets.