Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving Make Excuses For Embarrassing Clippers Loss

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving got embarrassed by the Los Angeles Clippers this weekend in the first game of their best-of-seven series.

Despite coming into the playoffs as one of the league’s hottest teams, and even though L.A. was without its best player in Kawhi Leonard, Dallas got thoroughly outplayed from start to finish.

In the aftermath, Doncic and Irving made a bunch of excuses for why they underperformed.

The biggest reason, apparently, was because they thought Leonard was going to play even though everyone else knew he wasn’t.

“We prepared like he was going to play,” Doncic said.

“But that should not change our mentality. Their mentality was next man up, and they did very well, very well… It’s the playoffs, so we got to stay focused 48 minutes.”

Irving struck a similar note.

“It is a psychological game, playing chess, playing high-level combative game, competitive game,” he said.

“When someone like Kawhi who has a huge presence for their team isn’t playing, there is a bit of an adjustment period mentally because that means that other guys have to step up.”

If Doncic and Irving truly believe that beating the Clippers without Leonard is harder than doing so with him, they are in for a rough ride over the next couple of weeks.