3 Studs, 2 duds from Mavericks' blowout Game 5 win over Clippers

4. Dud - Russell Westbrook

LA Clippers guard Russell Westbrook became the villain of this series when he had a dirty foul against Luka Doncic in Game 3, and his play has been bad for most of this entire series.

On Wednesday night, Westbrook finished with six points and his play continues to hurt the Clippers offensively. Outside of Game 1, Westbrook has not been great, and Mavs fans are loving it. He isn't the player that he once was and the Mavericks are daring him to shoot.

Westbrook has gotten countless open looks from downtown in this series, and the Mavs are giving him all the space in the world to let it fly rather than closing out and making life hard on him. This can be a dangerous game when letting someone shoot, but it has paid off for Dallas in this series.

Forcing anyone but James Harden and Paul George to beat Dallas is a great plan, and the Mavs will live with him shooting this much.

Getting under Westbrook's skin and letting him shoot should be two key points in Game 6, and another poor Westbrook game could push the Mavericks into the second round. When Westbrook is playing well and playing with energy, he can completely change a game for the Clippers.

Having him negatively impact the game by chucking shots has been the case though in this series, and the Mavs need to neutralize his impact as much as possible.