The Stage Is Set For Luka Doncic To Have His Own Michael Jordan "Flu Game" Moment In Tonight's Pivotal Game 5
As if these playoffs haven't been fun enough, we have another rather important game tonight in Game 5 between the Mavs and Clippers with the series tied 2-2.
Just how important is it to be up 3-2 after tonight? Well, all time in NBA playoff history, teams with 3-2 leads go on to win the series 84% of the time (288-55). In the first round, this bumps up to 86% (72-11). There's a reason many consider Game 5 in a 2-2 split to be the ultimate swing game, and that's absolutely the case in this series.
James Harden is having arguably the best playoff run of anyone in the league through 4 games
by completely feasting on the Mavs issues in terms of their point of attack defense, and somehow they've been able to compete at a high level even without Kawhi. On the other end you have Kyrie playing some of his best basketball since his Cavs title run.
But I would like to take this opportunity to also present another potential factor heading into tonight's massive Game 5. There's a chance we are about to get Luka Doncic's version of the Jordan Flu Game
Hmmm, a Jordan Brand athlete being super sick (aka "flu") ahead of a huge Game 5 on the road against a team from the Western Conference? Gee, I wonder where we've seen something like this before
Ah that's right. MJ's famous Flu Game!
Sure, when MJ pulled this off it was in the NBA Finals and this is clearly the first round. But don't let the details or facts get in the way of the point of this blog which is the stage is set for Luka to have his own MJ Flu Game moment. The signs are all there.
If you wanted to perhaps get even more nuts, Game 4 of the CHI/UTA series was a 4 point Bulls loss on the road. The Mavs Game 4 loss on the road was by 5 points. Slightly different, but basically the same shit.
I'm just saying I can already see it. Luka being sick as hell on the sideline looking like a guy with zero energy yet somehow he digs deep and throws up a 30/12/13 and we have another game that goes right down to the wire, which wouldn't be all that different from MJ's 38/7/5 in the 90-88 Bulls win back in 1997. It all makes way too much sense as long as you're willing to allow your brain to get a little ridiculous and believe in something that technically might not even be true.
There's also a knee sprain that Luka is dealing with and I'm not sure if MJ also had a sore knee back in 1997, but there's no denying this has all the makings of a Flu Game 2.0, and honestly it might be what the Mavs need in order to regain control of this series and head back home with a chance to end the Clippers season.