The Dallas Mavericks have won two straight games versus Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. This was for sure unexpected given that the Clippers were favored to win this series. However, what wasn’t unexpected was that Mavs superstar Luka Doncic would show up in the first round and indeed, he’s been doing just that. 

Despite how great Leonard and his sidekick Paul George have been, Luka Doncic is by far the best player in this series. It seems as if he’s the kryptonite of the Clippers as LA can’t figure out how to defend the 22-year-old.

Luka Doncic is averaging a remarkable 35 points, 9.0 assists and 8.5 rebounds per game. It also helps that Doncic’s teammates have been showing up—looking like the hungrier team in this series. 

As the series shifts to Dallas, the question still remains: How do the Clippers stop Doncic? Doncic just opens so much for the Mavs. He can pass at such a high rate, score (crazy three pointers), rebound and basically do everything on the court. The game comes so easily for Luka Doncic, which just shows why he’s going to be the face of this league one day. 

https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1397563250888347661

Doncic’s dominance in the first round versus the Clippers thus far has led to a particular question: Is he already better than Leonard? Leonard is a two time NBA champion, two time Finals MVP and has already proven that he can in fact win the biggest stage. 

The answer is no. Luka Doncic isn’t better than Leonard—at least, not yet. 

For as good as Doncic has been this season and series, Leonard still has the championship pedigree Luka Doncic lacks. It’ll be fair to argue this if Doncic is indeed dominating Leonard individually in this series but he is not. It seems the Clippers are just struggling defensively hence why Doncic is having his way.

This isn’t a knock on Luka Doncic at all, it’s just that Leonard is a more proven player on the biggest stage. 

Leonard can defend, kill everyone with his midrange game and will his team to victory. Doncic is a young superstar that’s navigating his way around the league that Kawhi has already been through. Can Luka Doncic perhaps overtake Leonard one day? Yes, for sure but not at the moment at least. 

The dominance of the Mavs and Luka Doncic in this series is more about the failure of the Clippers. The Clippers, who wanted to dodge the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, are serving their karma to the basketball Gods. Sure, this sounds superstitious and all but it seems like the team that looked so good in the regular season hasn’t shown up at all. 

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Their main issue of the Clippers is their defense but it’s not like their offense is carrying them either. They’re also going through rotation problems and it doesn’t help that their role players haven’t shown up. Where is Reggie Jackson? Marcus Morris Sr? Luke Kannard, who was paid $64 million dollars, has been warming the bench all series. It’s gotten to the point where Clippers point guard Rajon Rondo (a proven winner) has already shown his anger towards the situation of the team: 

When Rondo is mad, that just means the Clippers aren’t playing right. For them to get back in the series, head coach Ty Lue must make the right adjustments. Lue also needs to figure out his defense and find ways to remove the load on Leonard and George. It also doesn’t help that the Clippers are about to play on the road in front of 19,200 fans. Can the Clippers continue their redemption story? Sure, but it’s going to be one hell of a battle. 

The bottomline of this story is that Doncic cannot be put ahead of Leonard just yet because of what has happened in this series. There’s just too many variables as to why the Mavs have been better than the Clippers so far.

But once again, this doesn’t mean Doncic won’t be better than Leonard one day. Doncic’s ceiling is so high that he’s already pegged to go down as one of the top 10 best players in NBA history. 

https://twitter.com/abdulamemon/status/1396228938280624132

As for Leonard, NBA fans know how deadly the Clippers superstar can still be. Leonard is a proven champion and one of the best scorers and defenders of all time. He’s still a top five all around player in the league today. It's unfair to say that Luka Doncic is above him if Leonard is having a great series (despite losing two straight) and is doing his best to carry his team. The Clippers however, are not doing their best to help Leonard.