3 Studs, 2 duds from Mavericks' dominant closeout win over Clippers

4. Dud - P.J. Tucker

One of the craziest developments of the Dallas Mavericks and LA Clippers series has been Kawhi Leonard's knee injury that kept him out for Games 1, 4, 5, and 6. Skip Bayless was the first person to report that Leonard would be out for Game 1 but return in Game 2, and he was exactly right.

Despite Leonard returning to the lineup and playing in Games 2 and 3, he was not playing like himself. He looked uncomfortable out there, and this knee inflammation ended up being more serious than expected. Leonard's knee injury changed everything about this series, and the Clippers had to find a new starting forward. For the first three games that Leonard missed, it was Amir Coffey, but Tyronn Lue decided to roll the dice a little bit in Game 6 and he started P.J. Tucker.

Tucker had only played 10 minutes in the entire series (all in Game 5) before Game 6, and he was the clear weak link in the Clippers starting lineup. Tucker finished with eight points on the night, and he had the second-worst plus/minus on the Clippers with a -14.

Starting Tucker after he had barely played all series was a questionable decision to begin with, and he didn't make much of an impact on either end of the floor. Many of the Clippers players could have played better in this loss, and Tucker being on this list is more due to the fact that Leonard would have been playing in his spot if his knee wasn't injured.