Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Kevin Durant are feeling the playoff squeeze - The Washington Post

LOS ANGELES — Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Kevin Durant exited the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs licking their wounds after double-digit defeats, forced to reckon with the fact that the squeeze is already on.

The superstars endured different flavors of misery in their openers: Doncic’s untested Dallas Mavericks face-planted with a horrific offensive showing against the Los Angeles Clippers, James’s Los Angeles Lakers were outlasted again by the defending champion Denver Nuggets, and Durant’s Phoenix Suns came apart at the seams thanks to steady prodding from Anthony Edwards’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Once the Game 1 dust settled Sunday, it was time to wonder whether this will be the first year since 2005 that James, Durant and Stephen Curry, whose Golden State Warriors lost last week in the play-in tournament, will be eliminated before the second round.

Doncic, 25, is more than a decade younger than James and Durant, but his Mavericks have operated like the clock is ticking. After trading for Kyrie Irving last year and overhauling their front line at the trade deadline, the Mavericks entered the playoffs hoping they had sufficiently bolstered Doncic’s supporting cast.

Sunday’s 109-97 loss to the Clippers reopened old wounds. The Mavericks looked too reliant upon Doncic, too small inside and too dependent on the whims of three-point shooting. Dallas managed just eight points in a dreadful second quarter, falling behind by 29. At halftime, the Mavericks had shot 9 for 41 (22.0 percent) from the field and 2 for 18 (11.1 percent) from deep, and their strong 12-3 close to the regular season was a distant memory.

Doncic, who finished with 33 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, was uncharacteristically passive in the first half, and the Mavericks’ big men — Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber — posted just nine points and seven rebounds on the night. Meanwhile, Clippers center Ivica Zubac, who is accustomed to being an afterthought, poured in 20 points and 15 rebounds.

Worst of all, Dallas squandered a golden opportunity to take control with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard sidelined by a knee injury. Rather than pouncing on an undermanned opponent, the Mavericks looked unprepared for the postseason intensity, conceding 28 points to James Harden and 22 to Paul George.

“It was my bad in the first half. I wasn’t aggressive enough. I need to stay aggressive and find the open man,” Doncic said. “[Zubac] was definitely the X-factor — rebounding and scoring. We’ve got to be more physical with him.”

A first-round loss to the Clippers, who knocked out the Mavericks in the 2020 and 2021 playoffs, would trigger another existential crisis. Dallas changed coaches in the wake of its 2021 exit, then traded Kristaps Porzingis, lost Jalen Brunson in free agency and bet big on Kyrie Irving in the years that followed. The Mavericks, overwhelmed by the flurry of activity, plummeted into last year’s lottery, which only encouraged more aggressive maneuvering amid an ownership change this season. Gafford and P.J. Washington, who cost Dallas precious draft assets in deadline trades, must leave much bigger marks as this series unfolds.

“This was a great first test for us, and we obviously failed,” Irving said. “Our mind was all over the place. It was our first playoff game together. We’ve got to settle in.”

Doncic and the Mavericks were hardly alone in their misery. The Lakers suffered a 114-103 road loss to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday as Nikola Jokic turned in another brilliant showing with 32 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. The Nuggets’ victory was their ninth straight against the Lakers, dating from the 2023 Western Conference finals. James, who had 27 points, six rebounds and eight assists, and all-star center Anthony Davis were productive, but they had no answers for big runs in the second and third quarters.

Jokic’s Nuggets are 5-1 in playoffs series when they win Game 1, and they won their openers in all four rounds during last year’s title run. To unseat the reigning champions, James will need more help from guards Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell, who combined for 26 points on 29 shots, and the Lakers’ thin bench.

But if Denver prevails, as expected, the 39-year-old James will enter the summer seeking a new contract extension and a possible team-up with his teenage son, Bronny, who entered his name into the draft pool. The Lakers, meanwhile, would need to weigh whether a team built around James and Davis is still capable of being a viable contender.

Durant’s Suns might have taken the worst loss of all, falling, 120-95, on the road against the Timberwolves on Saturday. Edwards stole the show with 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists, celebrating one jumper by loudly jawing in Durant’s direction. Durant, 35, only smiled in return.

“I think everybody here knows that’s my favorite player of all time,” Edwards said. “That was probably one of the best feelings ever in my whole life.”

The problem for Phoenix in Game 1? Everything but Durant, who had 31 points on 11-for-17 shooting. His co-stars, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, turned in underwhelming performances, and starting guard Grayson Allen left early with an ankle injury. Phoenix leaked points from everywhere: Its overmatched front line conceded a 52-28 rebounding advantage, and Edwards picked apart its disjointed perimeter defense.

An early exit would only add to Durant’s trials since his 2019 departure from the Warriors: He missed the 2020 playoffs while recovering from an Achilles’ injury; he missed out on a potential series-winning shot against the Milwaukee Bucks when his toe was on the three-point line in the 2021 playoffs; his Brooklyn Nets were swept out of the first round of the 2022 playoffs; and his new-look Suns were blown off the court by the Nuggets in last year’s second round. James claimed his fourth title in 2020 and Curry won his fourth in 2022, but Durant remains stuck on two.

History strongly suggests that April follies beget July gambles. The Mavericks, Lakers and Suns engineered major trades to keep their centerpiece stars happy, and everyone involved has a right to expect results. If these teams’ stories don’t change over the next two weeks, brace for some new faces come summertime.

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