By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Sports Writer
DALLAS — On a night when the Clippers were again playing without one of their stars, they needed more from the healthy ones in order to extend their season.
As it turned out, they didn’t get enough from either one.
Luka Doncic had 28 points and 13 assists and Kyrie Irving scored 28 of his 30 points in a second-half surge while Paul George and James Harden endured a poor shooting night as the Dallas Mavericks finished off the Clippers with a 114-101 victory in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series on Friday night.
With Irving alongside him this time, Doncic did what the Slovenian superstar couldn’t three years earlier – close out the Clippers. The fifth-seeded Mavericks beat the Clippers for the the first time in three first-round tries over the past five seasons and will open the Western Conference semifinals at the top seed, Oklahoma City, on Tuesday night.
“We’re pushing each other off the court to be better, and then when we get on the court it’s just like synchronicity,” Irving said. “It feels good.”
George had 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting (2 for 10 from 3-point range) to go with 11 rebounds for the Clippers, who won the first two times they played without All-Star Kawhi Leonard in the series but didn’t have enough scoring punch in the last two he was sidelined by right knee inflammation.
Harden had 16 points and 13 assists but was just 5 for 16 from the field and missed all six of his 3-point attempts as the Clippers were eliminated in the first round for the second consecutive season despite the early-season trade for the 10-time All-Star.
“A lot of emotions and things going through my mind right now,” Harden said.
Norman Powell scored 20 points for the Clippers, and Ivica Zubac had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Irving, added at the trade deadline last year for the kind of playoff run the Mavs hope they just started, spent plenty of time guarding Harden in the first half, when he had two…
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