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.
W | L | Pct | GB | |
---|---|---|---|---|
51 | 31 | .622 | 0.0 | |
49 | 33 | .598 | 2.0 | |
47 | 35 | .573 | 4.0 | |
46 | 36 | .561 | 5.0 | |
46 | 36 | .561 | 5.0 |