The Los Angeles Clippers led after the first quarter in Game 3 in Dallas, but in the second quarter their offense stalled out and they could never get it started again. The Mavs pulled away to take a 13-point lead at the half and put it in cruise control the rest of the way, as the Clippers never really mounted a charge in the second half.
That didn’t mean the final 24 minutes weren’t without some fireworks, they just didn’t come courtesy of the offenses. In the fourth quarter, frustration built for the Clippers, particularly Russell Westbrook who got into it a few times with Luka Doncic before finally snapping and spinning the Mavs star around on a foul and getting in a shoving match with anyone who would step towards him.
Russ kinda lost his s*** on everyone here, thought he was gonna pop the camera guy at the end pic.twitter.com/heveasxyk8
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 27, 2024
Westbrook was ejected, as he was given a pair of technical fouls for shoving Doncic and shoving PJ Washington — and his push of the ref who tried to separate him probably didn’t help his cause. Washington also got T’d up and ejected for pushing Westbrook after coming to defend his star. It wasn’t exactly a hard shove from Washington, but the officials clearly were just trying to keep things from getting out of hand at any point towards the end of the game.
It was a frustrating night for the Clippers as they did not have their A-game (or B-game) and they didn’t exactly handle it well. Now they’ll have to regroup to find a response in Game 4 or risk going back to L.A. on the brink of a first round exit.