Lowe: Why the Mavericks and Clippers both face enormous pressure in Game 3

Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print. Welcome to the first truly big game of the 2024 playoffs: Game 3 between the LA Clippers and Dallas Mavericks, two teams that fell on the opposite side of the West bracket from the defending champion Denver Nuggets -- teams that would be confident facing the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-New Orleans Pelicans series in the next round. Both are under enormous pressure -- some self-imposed -- to make at least the conference finals. The Mavericks owe their 2024 first-round pick to the New York Knicks -- the last vestige of the ill-fated Kristaps Porzingis deal -- and do not control any of their first-round picks from 2027 through 2030.