Los Angeles (AFP)
Dallas' Latvian interior Kristaps Porzingis is still having pain in his right knee and will therefore miss the N.5 NBA play-off round 1 game against the Clippers on Tuesday night, his club announced.
The absence is therefore prolonged for Porzingis, who had to give up playing the previous meeting between the two teams. This did not prevent the Mavericks from equalizing at 2-2 in their series, thanks to an exceptional performance from star Luka Doncic author of a triple-double (43 pts, 17 rebounds, 13 assists) and the basket of victory (135-133) at three points, at the overtime buzzer.
Porzingis' new package (23.7 pts, 8.7 rebounds on average in this series) is nonetheless detrimental for the Texan team, as was seen in match N.1 when he been sent off for two technical faults at the start of the third quarter. What took advantage of the Clippers to break away from the score and win.
But the precaution is in place, given its fragility to the knees. In February 2018, while in the Knicks jersey, he suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament in his left knee, which caused him to miss a season and a half. This season, it was the law that caused him to miss a streak of 10 matches in January and that is making him suffer again.
Side Clippers, uncertainty hangs over the back Patrick Beverley, affected in the left calf and who has just missed the last three matches of the series.
© 2020 AFP