Without Kawhi, Clippers still lead by 31, almost blow it but hot Harden gets L.A. win to tie series

"It's a show. It's elite, skilled, Hall-of-Fame basketball players going at it, so there's only so much we can do defensively."

James Harden is right — the Clippers and Mavericks put on an offensive show on Saturday.

With Kawhi Leonard out due to knee inflammation (after two games back), Paul George took charge early. The Clippers raced out to a fast lead that reached 20 points by the end of the first quarter and 31 points midway through the second quarter. It looked like we could have another playoff blowout game.

Behind Kyrie Irving, Dallas started to chip away and by the fourth quarter the game was on — Dallas even led for a second. That's when James Harden took over, scoring 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting — all his shots coming in the paint as he got downhill — and the Clippers held on for a dramatic 116-111 win on the road.

The Clippers win evens this series at 2-2 as it heads back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Wednesday night.

Kyrie Irving had a monster game for Dallas with 40 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and his play starting in the final six minutes of the second quarter turned the game around for the Mavericks. Luka Doncic started slow and a bit passive but finished with another triple-double of 29 points, plus 10 each in rebounds and assists.

There was frustration from Mavericks fans about calls and even Jason Kidd's rotations at the end of the game, but make no mistake they lost this game in the first 20 minutes when they got behind by 31.

"When you give up 39 points in a playoff game [first quarter] and try to come back, it's going to be difficult. We knew from that point on, we had to play almost perfectly," Kyrie Irving said postgame. "We dug ourselves in a hole. There was no time to complain about it, or look to each other for excuses. It was just time to get it going. We fell short.

"This has been consistent in the series where Kawhi [ Leonard ] doesn't play and we're dealing with Paul George and James Harden going off. We learned from the first time, but I guess we needed to go through it a second time as a team."

The Clippers are not better without Kawhi Leonard. However, they are better without a hobbled Kawhi Leonard who is not himself, which is what the Clippers got from him in Game 3. Without him, the roles for Harden and George are more defined and they are willing to take tougher, more contested shots — which worked in this game.

"It is huge. Acquiring James [Harden] this year and having someone that can step up and score when PG or Kawhi is out," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. "PG was phenomenal [in] the first half. I think he got a little tired in the second half, but we needed every bit of it to win this game. This was a huge game for us to win. James was great. PG was great. Norm [Norman Powell] made some big shots. But overall, I thought our team really stuck together when it got tough. Don't hang your heads, don't point fingers, stay together and figure out how to win the game."

Dallas heads into Game 5 needing to figure out how to win the non-Luka minutes if they want to win this series.