Originally Posted by SMC0007
Though coach Tyronn Lue denied there was any tanking involved, the LA Clippers became one of the big stories of the final week of the regular season when losses to the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder dropped them into fourth place in the Western Conference.
As a result, the Clippers set themselves up to avoid the Los Angeles Lakers until the conference finals, but in the process they also set up a first-round meeting with the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic.
The Clippers defeated the Mavericks in the first round in the bubble a season ago, but life comes at you fast, especially in the NBA playoffs, and the Clippers find themselves down 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Friday in Dallas (9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN App).
Through two games, Doncic is averaging 35 points, 8.5 rebounds and 9.0 assists while shooting 50.9% from the floor and 41.7% from deep. Simply put, in a series in which the other team has a two-time Finals MVP and a five-time All-NBA selection, Doncic has been the best player on the floor.
While he's only 22 years old, he's taken another big step forward this year, his third in the NBA. If he and the Mavericks can hold serve this weekend, they will end the Clippers' season -- and serve notice to the rest of the league that Doncic's rapid improvements have made him a player you try to avoid in a postseason tournament.
Not only is he the most talented young offensive player in the world right now, but he's also proving he's a fierce competitor. That combination, along with his natural maturation process, is resulting in another Luka leap, and the numbers suggest Doncic is on a rapid road to greatness.
As a scorer, Doncic can do it all, but his signature shot is the unassisted 3-pointer. This season, he led the league in step-back 3s both attempted and made. As he gets better at knocking down these self-created 3s, he will become unstoppable, which will make his teams more difficult to beat.
Dallas was 42-30 overall in the regular season but 12-2 when Doncic made at least five 3-pointers -- something he's done in each of the first two games against the Clippers. We all know Doncic is one of the best driving playmakers in the game, but if he adds a reliable 3-pointer, opponents will be helpless. That's where this is headed.
In just his third season, Doncic is already among the best in the NBA at both creating his own looks from downtown and converting them. Consider these nuggets:
Doncic ranked second in the league in unassisted 3-pointers this season, behind only Damian Lillard.
Doncic ranked second in shooting percentage out of the 12 players who attempted at least 200 unassisted 3s this season, behind only Stephen Curry.
Yikes. Unassisted 3s have emerged as the calling card of many of today's most dangerous scorers. Seeing Doncic, at 22, at the top of these kinds of lists should strike fear in the rest of the league.
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Just to contextualize how young Doncic is, consider this: Doncic won't be the same as Paul George is right now until March 26, 2030. Get comfortable, folks, the Doncic era is just getting started.
As effective as Doncic has become as a 3-point shooter, his most impressive improvements as a jump shooter are actually occurring inside the arc.
Defying the trends of the day, Doncic is taking more midrange shots than he used to. Last season, barely 7% of his shots occurred between 10 feet and the 3-point line; this season, that figure has nearly tripled to over 21%. Just look at all the changes:
Kirk Goldsberry/ESPN
While midrange shots are generally frowned upon these days, players who can sink them at high rates can make them acceptable options, and it looks like Doncic is becoming one of those players.
Just one year ago, the scouting report on Doncic, was to let him shoot. No jump-shooter in the NBA combined volume and inefficiency like Doncic did last year. Out of 28 players who attempted at least 600 jumpers last season, he ranked dead last in efficiency, with an eFG% of just 44.0. He attempted 77 2-point jumpers and made just 28.6% of them.
This season, he took 272 jumpers inside the arc, an increase of nearly 200, and made 44.5% of them. Those huge increases in both volume and accuracy show that Doncic is emerging as one of the most versatile scorers in the league.
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Out of 29 players who attempted at least 200 non-paint 2s this season, Doncic ranked seventh in efficiency. The players above him on this list include a who's who of superstar shooters -- Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Nikola Jokic and Chris Paul. All of these guys are special partly because their ability to punish opposing defenses in the midrange opens up other options.
Doncic's overall efficiency on jumpers in 2020-21 was better than that of players such as Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Julius Randle and Bradley Beal. Add in the fact that he's got one of the most accurate floaters in the league and Doncic's development is in great shape.
And jumpers are only part of his game.
According to Second Spectrum, Doncic is the most prolific driver in the league, averaging 20.9 drives per game. And out of the 25 most active drivers in the league, Doncic ranks second in efficiency. Only Lillard's drives yielded more points on average.
The Mavs' offense is designed to do one thing: create mismatches for Doncic, then let him work. As the Clippers are finding out, once he gets going downhill, he can do it all. Doncic can drive in either direction, read the defense and make the right play. He's big enough to overpower smaller defenders, like Patrick Beverley, and while Doncic is not the fastest guy in the world, he's still quick enough to beat bigger defenders. Still perhaps his best attribute as an attacker is his ability to change directions and decelerate.
The results speak for themselves. He can score in the paint (he ranked 18th in points in the paint this season), he can draw fouls (he ranked 11th in FTA per game) and he can pass (sixth in the NBA in assists per game).
But so far in this series, it's the driving layups and floaters near the rim that the Clippers can't stop. More than half of Doncic's 35 drives in the first two games have resulted in his own shots near the basket, and the Mavs are scoring a ridiculous 1.61 points per possession on those.
And here's the thing: If a team with George and Kawhi Leonard, who are among the world's best perimeter defenders, can't stop Doncic drives, then who can? In Game 2, Doncic scored 17 of his 39 points with either George or Leonard as his primary defender. Beverley, a three-time All-Defensive Team selection, hasn't been able to stop him.
NBA reputations are sketched out during the regular season, but ultimately they get carved into stone in the playoffs. If Doncic leads Dallas past this Clippers team in Round 1, he will have his first big postseason triumph. If he continues to develop the way he has, turning weaknesses in his game into strengths, this will be just the first of many.
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