Ivica Zubac on James Harden: 'He's one of the greatest scorers the game has seen. He can do that on a nightly basis. The role is different for him on this team. ... We all know he can do that [as a scorer in Game 1].'

Ivica Zubac on the gameplan early on to feature him: 'Just try to be physical in my post ups, try to get as close to the basket as possible so I could get some layups. It worked well tonight. Feel like I'm pretty confident in the post, feel like I can post-up pretty much anyone.'

Paul George on Kawhi Leonard: “We’re gonna hold it down for him until he’s ready to return.”

James Harden told reporters in the locker room after the game that the team knew that Kawhi Leonard was out for Game 1 a few days ago.

Tyronn Lue said that the ATO that resulted in Mason Plumlee finding Paul George for a backdoor dunk in the fourth quarter was one they had worked on over the last couple weeks and decided to break out in Game 1.

Tyronn Lue on the Clippers not finishing as well in the paint as he would like: 'We got to do a better job of getting to the free throw line, however you want to take that.'

Tyronn Lue on the Clippers' defense this afternoon: 'There was some things that we didn't do that we were supposed to do.'

Lue was pleased with the defense overall but also stated that they changed their schemes after getting up by nearly 30 to not allow Dallas more open 3s.

Final | Clippers 109, Mavericks 97 | Clippers win Game 1 behind James Harden's sensational 28 points and 8 assists and Ivica Zubac's 20 points and 14 rebounds. Paul George added 20. Luka Doncic finished with 33. Clippers are 5-4 when Doncic scores 30+ against them in playoffs.

Barring any craziness, the Clippers are going to take Game 1 of this series without Kawhi Leonard despite Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving each scoring 30+ and a 33-13 FTA advantage in favor of the Mavericks.

James Harden's 6th 3-pointer might have iced this one. 28 for Uno.

James Harden’s afternoon.

It's been a 10-2 Dallas run since Terance Mann's 3-pointer staked the Clippers to a 22-point lead with six minutes to go in the fourth. Timeout Clippers with 3:27 to play, leading 102-88.

Clippers are going to have to stop fouling if they want to maintain this double-digit lead. Mavericks within 16 (102-86) with 4:46 to go. Dallas with a 29-11 FTA advantage.

James Harden has 25 points and 8 assists on 7-for-15 this afternoon.

Technical foul and a Flagrant 1 on Ivica Zubac. Three free throws for Dallas and the ball.

Actually, I take that back. It was not Mann and Doncic. It was P.J. Washington throwing James Harden down and then Ivica Zubac tossing Maxi Kleber.

It's officially a Clippers-Mavericks game as Terance Mann and Luka Doncic got into it a bit.

Terance Mann's third 3-pointer of the game pushes the Clippers back up by 22 with six minutes to go. Mann is a perfect 3-for-3 from deep in Game 1. Mann shot 44% on 3s in 2024.

7 straight from Paul George. He's up to 18 for the game.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have made 18 of Dallas' 26 field goals in this game. They've assisted on 7 of the other 8.