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Getting behind 1-0 in the NBA Playoffs will have the anxiety tick up just a bit for teams that fall into the undesirable category. Game 2's are set to get underway in a couple of series' on Monday night. With each series having concluded Game 1, here are two teams that lost Game 1 but will still win their series.
Los Angeles Clippers
The Dallas Mavericks went into LA and took out the Clippers in Game 1 by a final score of 113-103. Luka Doncic was brilliant for three quarters and Dallas received great contributions for Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dorian Finney-Smith.
On the flip side in this NBA Playoffs round one matchup, the Clippers sputtered right out of the gate. They gave up 33 in the first quarter to the Mavericks and Dallas moved to 28-0 on the season when leading after the first frame.
It was a great win for Dallas but the numbers the Clippers posted likely won't be replicated moving forward.
Los Angeles led the NBA at 41% in the regular season from three point land. In Game 1, they shot a putrid 11-40, good for just 27%.
The Clippers got healthy at the right time with the returns of Patrick Beverley, Serge Ibaka and others at the tail end of the season.
Dallas is a really sound team but they don't have the firepower to match the Clippers in a best-of-7 series. Game 1 was a great start for Dallas in the NBA Playoffs, but expect the Clippers to rally and take this series.
Utah Jazz
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The Donovan Mitchell situation is puzzling, as he seems to be good to play and has voiced that yet he was held out of Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies. As a result, Memphis pounced on the opportunity to jump out to a 1-0 lead in this NBA Playoffs series.
Make no mistake about it though, the Jazz earned that No. 1 seed in the Western Conference despite Mitchell missing a large chunk of the regular season at the backend.
Players like Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles have stepped up along with the normal customers like Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley.
Memphis has some dogs on their team, they aren't going to go down easily.
Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks carried the workload in Game 1 and are certainly capable of doing so going forward.
In the end though, Utah will figure things out and likely have Mitchell back in the fold. Memphis is a great story, having won two games in two tries in the play-in tournament just to get a spot at the table for the NBA Playoffs.
Utah's array of options on offense, along with their top tier team defense will overcome this 1-0 deficit that they find themselves in, with or without Donovan Mitchell.
Other teams like the Lakers, Knicks, Heat are noteworthy, as they all trial 1-0 in their respective series', all suffering really close losses.
As the story goes, get down 1-0 and it's more than doable to flip the script and win the series. But if you get down 2-0 in the NBA Playoffs, it's a different bear to try and tackle.
