Dallas played some of the best defense the team has this year to split the double-dip
The Dallas Mavericks (18-10) spread the wealth on offense and played some of the best defense the team has all season in a 113-97 win over the Los Angeles Clippers (16-13) on Saturday night at American Airlines Center.
In Luka Dončić’s second game sidelined with a heel contusion, eight Mavericks scored in double figures once again, the 14th time Dallas has put at least six in double figures through 28 games this season. The Mavs have now won 13 of those 14 games.
Quentin Grimes took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of his 20 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, including one wild make on an attempted lob that was deflected by a Clippers defender into the bucket to put the Mavs up 92-77 with just under eight minutes to play. Norman Powell and Kevin Porter Jr. got hot from 3-point range as the fourth quarter wore on, but the Mavs had enough collective effort in the tank down the stretch to hold off the comeback attempt.
Here are three hurdles the Mavs had to jump over in order to preserve the win.
Early shooting woes from Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson
The Mavericks would need everything Irving and Thompson could give them in the second straight game without Luka Dončić, who sat with a heel injury. The duo combined to shoot just 1-of-9 from the floor in the first quarter, though. The stingy Clipper defense got a hand in the face of the Mavs’ shooters and made a mess of the first quarter before Thompson scored the first five points of the second on a corner 3-pointer and a nifty scooping drive that made the score 32-25 and forced an LA timeout with 9:36 left in the first half.
Dallas rode that little wave of momentum to carry them through the muck of the first half to a 54-40 lead at the break. Irving and Thompson woke up a little, hitting 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions with under a minute left in the first half to extend the Dallas lead to 52-38. Both Spencer Dinwiddie (10 points, four assists, two steals) and Naji Marshall (seven points, three rebounds) provided sparks for the Mavs along the way in the first half while Irving and Thompson searched for the shooting touch. The Mavs played a little defense of their own as well, holding the Clipper 3-point shooters to just 3-of-19 and forcing 11 L.A. turnovers in the first two quarters.
Irving got going a little bit in the third quarter and finished with 15 points on 6-of-25 shooting to go along with six assists in the win. Klay Thompson added 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc after going 4-for-4 from the field in the second quarter. Thompson also took four steals in the win.
The recent turnover bug
Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images
The Mavs were strong with the ball, overcoming a recent tendency toward carelessness by turning the ball over just 11 times in the win over the Clippers. Dallas backslid a little bit on that front in the third quarter, coughing the ball up four times in the frame after giving it away just five times in the first half. But the Mavs kept things under control against one of the best defenses in the NBA. They never allowed turnovers to lead to a big Clipper scoring run.
The Mavs started the year averaging around 12 turnovers per game, one of the best marks in the association through the season’s first 12 games. That total crept closer to 17 as the Mavericks ripped off wins in 11 of their next 12 games. Saturday’s 11 turnovers were the fewest in a game for the Mavs they turned it over 10 times in a 122-120 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Nov. 10.
There was a stretch of more than nine minutes, spanning from late in the third through the first six or so minutes in the fourth, where the Mavericks did not turn the ball over at all. The Mavs edged the Clippers 14-13 off opponent turnovers in the win.
The Ivica Zubac conundrum
Zubac has not been a good matchup for the Mavericks’ post tandem of Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in recent matchups. Lively was active enough on both ends of the court to bother Zubac in Saturday’s win, especially in the first half. Lively collected seven points, six boards and two steals before the break. Zubac got going down low early in the third on seven straight points to cut the Mavs’ lead to seven points with just under seven minutes left in the third, though. The contributions of Lively, Gafford and even a little grit from Maxi Kleber, who was used as a sort of floating free safety at times on defense down low against Zubac, won’t really jump out at you on the box score, but their collective activity inside was important as the outside shooting came and went for Dallas.
Gafford scored on a 3-point play before jamming home a putback with 3:30 left in the third to put Dallas back in front by 11, up 70-59 at the time. It was cool to hear his primal screams on each of those buckets, as Gafford was mic’d up for the win against the Clippers. He finished with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor to go along with six boards and two blocked shots in the win.
Zubac scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed 15 rebounds in 34 minutes against the Mavs on Saturday.