Dunleavys are used to meeting this way

The matchups are becoming easier for both father and son.

It’s no longer strange that Mike Dunleavy Sr. strategizes to contain his son, and Mike Dunleavy Jr. uses everything his father taught him growing up to hand him a loss.

As father and son, or coach and opposing player, met for the 16th time in the NBA, it has almost turned into a mundane matter.

“I used to hate them. I used to really hate them,” Clippers Coach Dunleavy Sr. said about the matchups with his son. “Now, it’s like we’ve done this before. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Dunleavy Jr. played in college at Duke and started his pro career with the Golden State Warriors before a trade landed him with the Pacers last season.

In 15 previous games against his dad, Dunleavy Jr. came away a winner only five times.

In a game last season, he memorably collided into his father along the sideline.

“It’s different than any other situation, going up against any other coach or team in the league, so from that standpoint, I think there always will be [emotion],” Dunleavy Jr. said. “But has it toned down in terms of the weirdness? Yeah, it has.”

“This is the 16th time we’ve played, so I’m getting used to it and it’s kind of become something we’ve both gotten accustomed to.”

Dunleavy Jr., along with forward Danny Granger, are providing a potent one-two combination for the Pacers.

Dunleavy began Wednesday averaging 22.3 points and a team-high nine rebounds. He scored 27 points in a win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.

“It’s a system that is really good for him,” Dunleavy Sr. said. “They play a lot of passing games. There is a lot of reads on your cuts and making decisions and he gets a lot of touches in it.

“Based on that, you can get into a flow and he’s scoring points and he is rebounding. But a lot of what he does for a team is in ball movement and making other guys better.”

Dunleavy Jr. tweaked his left ankle at Monday’s practice and there was a chance he wouldn’t play against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Something he conveniently forgot to tell his father.

“He had a game last night,” Dunleavy Jr. said. “I didn’t have a chance to speak to him. It didn’t come up. I’ll put it like that.”

The two saw each other before the game and planned to meet up again after with the coach and opposing player relationship dissipating into the father and son role again.

“We go out there and compete and before and after we see each other, so it’s nice,” Dunleavy Jr. said.

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com