Marcus Morris reiterated that he was playing hard and not trying to hurt Luka Doncic following his ejection from the Los Angeles Clippers' 111-97 win over the Dallas Mavericks to close out the series.

Morris was called for a flagrant foul 2 and ejected from the game when he hit Doncic's head in the first quarter.

"They had to make that call. I think, honestly, we had a lot of back-and-forth this series. It was a hard-fought series. I just don't want people to mistake playing basketball, playing hard with trying to hurt somebody. I think Tim Hardaway had an extremely hard foul with [Paul George] last game, and it wasn't taken in [the same context]," said Morris after the game.

Morris added that he didn't think he would be suspended for game 1 of the next series.

Doncic didn't directly respond when asked if he thought Morris committed the flagrant on purpose.

Doncic finished the game with 38 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists.

"It was a terrible play. What can I say? It's two games in a row he did something like that. I really hoped the first game it wasn't on purpose, but looking back on the foul this game, you know what I think."

Luka Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Trey Burke are all expected to play in game 6 for the Dallas Mavericks.

Kristaps Porzingis is out for the first round. 

Patrick Beverley remains out for the Clippers due to a calf injury.

The Clippers are up 3-2 in the series. 

Patrick Beverley has been upgraded from doubtful to questionable for game 6 against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

Beverley has missed the last four games of the series with a strained calf. 

The Clippers are currently up 3-2 against the Mavs.

Paul George said that the Los Angeles Clippers became closer as a team since players boycotted games on Wednesday.

"We had to spend two days of talking and having uncomfortable conversations. You know, you got to see different guys' points of view and different guys' interests, and there was just a lot laid out on the table that the whole team kind of talked about. We definitely got closer," said George.

The Clippers and Lakers both reportedly voted to not continue the season during a meeting on Wednesday, before ultimately deciding to finish the playoffs the following day.

Doc Rivers said that the entire league has grown closer since the boycott.

"I think every team is closer because of the last 48 hours. But I think what really is closer is just the players in general as a group ... when you see guys in the room that are talking that probably don't know each other ... I mean, there's some smart young players in this league," said Rivers.  

George added that admitting he had been suffering through anxiety and depression in the bubble also helped create a bond between him and his peers.

"You know, whether I was the first to say it [inside the bubble] or not, we're all dealing with it. I've had conversations with guys here, and there's been a couple guys that is like, man, I'm happy I'm not the only one. I've been dealing with this, too. It's a thing in here. It's a brotherhood."

Doc Rivers said his players thought the season was over following an emotional league-wide players' meeting on Wednesday.

"Oh, they want to," Rivers said when asked if his team is ready to move forward during an interview Thursday on Fox Prime Ticket. "They are really looking forward to it. Yesterday was a very difficult day though. Like their emotions were all over the place.

"They thought it was over. It was just a really tough day for all of them."

The Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers voted on perhaps not continuing the season when polled during the meeting.

"To be fair, that vote wasn't us saying, 'We don't want to play basketball,'" Landry Shamet, appearing on "The JJ Redick Podcast," said of the initial poll Wednesday night. "It was just simply a poll of what we thought was best to do. That's what came out of our team."

"Obviously things were moving really fast," Shamet added of how he didn't feel confident when he went to bed on Wednesday night. "A lot of people had to step up and try to figure out the best thing for us to do. But one thing I think we didn't fully take into account was how high emotions were, how tense the situation was and how this was really the first time we as a whole as players have been able to sit and process and think about, talk about and have really good dialogue in the bubble about all this."

During one point in Wednesday's league-wide players meeting, Michele Roberts asked to have the floor to discuss the financial ramifications of going on strike for the remainder of the playoffs.

As Roberts was going over the numbers, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports that Patrick Beverley abruptly interrupted her and stated he disagreed with her logic. Roberts reiterated that these were potential financial losses the players would suffer and Beverley interrupted her again.

Roberts asked politely if she could continue with her point, and Beverley responded, “No, I pay your salary,” sources said. 

Chris Paul, Udonis Haslem and others intervened and told Beverley that disrespect would not be tolerated. 

The Dallas Mavericks have announced that their scheduled game against the Los Angeles Clippers has been officially postponed.

The Mavericks and Clippers were slated to play Game 6 Thursday evening.

In solidarity with our NBA family. pic.twitter.com/I6486avu3y

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) August 27, 2020

LeBron James left an impression during a players' meeting on Wednesday night that he prefers to end the NBA season, league sources told Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

Kawhi Leonard also was supportive of walking out of the bubble and returning home.

Lakers and Clippers players voted to end the NBA season during the three-hour meeting. 

Players are set to meet against at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

The meeting also featured tense moments, with Patrick Beverley calling out union leadership for a lack of transparency.

Players were also reportedly frustrated that the Bucks walked out of their game on Wednesday without informing the union or the Magic. Union leadership would have preferred to release a joint statement saying that both teams decided not to play. 

Paul George ended his playoff slump with 35 points for the Los Angeles Clippers in their Game 5 blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks.

George revealed that he was "in a dark place" during his walk-off interview with TNT.

"It was just a little bit of everything," George later explained when asked what he meant. "I underestimated mental health, honestly. I had anxiety. A little bit of depression. Just being locked in here. I just wasn't there. I checked out.

"Games 2, 3, 4, I wasn't there. I felt like I wasn't there. Shout-out to the people that were in my corner, that gave me words. They helped big time, help get me right, [get] me back in great spirits. I can't thank them enough."

George shot 10-for-47 in Games 2, 3 and 4, becoming the first player since Bob Cousy in 1960 to shoot under 25 percent in three straight playoff games.

George said he started to feel like he was able to come out of the basketball mindset on the day of Game 5 after getting some help.

"I mean, I felt it just [at] the start [on Tuesday]," George said. "Talks with a psychiatrist, our team psychiatrist. I mean, I just felt it. My energy, my spirit was changed. That's all it needed. That's all I needed. I came here, I knew what my job was. Left it all on that court. Ready to move forward."

Marcus Morris took to Twitter to deny that he purposely stepped on Luka Doncic's sprained left ankle during the Los Angeles Clippers' 154-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks in game 5.

The Clippers now lead the series 3-2. 

The incident took place in the third quarter, with Morris' foot landing on the back of Doncic's left foot and knocking off his shoe. 

"I play this game with a level of respect for myself and other players. To think I would try to injure somebody is crazy to me. 10 years going against the best. I stand on morals and hard work. I compete and leave it out there every game," tweeted Morris. 

Morris followed it up with another tweet, writing "Basketball has never been that serious to try to hurt somebody. Im not apologizing for shit because I know what I put into this game day in and day out. It was a mistake deal wit it. Competing is why I play."

Luka Doncic appeared skeptical in his post-game comments.

"I just hope it wasn't intentional, but every person is going to have their own thoughts. Just move on from it," said Doncic.