Doncic breaks goalscoring record in playoff debut, says performance was ‘terrible’ | sport

Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers had enough responses to withstand Luka Doncic’s record-breaking debut, especially after the 21-year-old running mate was kicked out of the game.

Leonard had 29 points and 12 rebounds, and the Clippers got a big boost from Kristaps Porzingis sent off to beat the Dallas Mavericks 118-110 on Monday night in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoffs.

Doncic finished with 42 points, the most a player has ever assigned in his first postseason game, and added nine assists and seven rebounds. He had Seed No.7 hanging on the Clippers for much of the night.

“I mean, he’s awesome,” Leonard said.

Doncic himself begged to differ. His assessment of his historical performance?

“Terrible,” he said. “I should never have 11 turnovers. That’s 11 more goods I can have. The thing with this game is that I have to be a lot better than that, for sure.

Los Angeles took the lead when Porzingis was sent off for his second technical foul in the third quarter and Doncic couldn’t bring the Mavs back to full force.

“KP supported me. He did it for me. He did it for his teammate. He supported me, ”Doncic said. “Not just me, but the whole team appreciates it. I don’t think it’s fair to take him out of the game, especially in the playoffs.

Porzingis got his second technical foul in a fight with Marcus Morris. The referees inflicted technical fouls on both players. Porzingis picked up his first technical foul in the first half for his reaction to a whistled foul when he thought he had blocked a shot.

Morris didn’t think any player deserved a technique. “Man of the playoffs, no one should be left out of the playoffs,” he said. “I know it really hurt their team, so not my fault.”

LeBron James, who certainly has an interest in seeing the Mavericks beat the Clippers, agreed. “Man who was fake as hell !!!!! Cmon man, ”he wrote on Twitter.

Elsewhere in the opening games of the playoffs on Monday, Denver, Toronto and Boston beat Utah, Brooklyn and Philadelphia respectively.