The Los Angeles Clippers have a bit of an edge against the Dallas Mavericks, even though it’s not necessarily on the court.

Tyronn Lue knows Kyrie Irving like the back of his hand, so even though there’s no such thing as stopping him, he certainly knows a thing or two about his tendencies and how to contain him.

Kyrie Irving opens up about facing his former head coach Tyronn Lue in the #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/8GMl9AXR7w

— NBA (@NBA) April 22, 2024

That’s why, following their loss in Game 1, Irving claimed that he’s been paying attention to detail and the little pointers that he knows Lue can give his team on his game (via NBA).

Lue and Irving won an NBA championship together with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the only one in Irving’s career.

The Mavs were arguably the best team in basketball after the All-Star break, but it didn’t look like that in their first game vs. the Clippers.

Even without Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers were able to completely dominate and crush Jason Kidd’s side.

Irving was still in his bag for most of the game, scoring 31 points on 10 of 18 shooting and 3 of 6 from beyond the arc, adding seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

The Mavs and Clippers know each other pretty well from all their recent playoff series, and you know it’s kind of personal for Luka Doncic at this point.

So, even if the Clippers have a significant advantage in the coaching department and plenty of star power to get the best of them, we should still expect the Mavs to put up more of a fight in the remaining games of the series.