Mavs Lose To Clippers
DALLAS — Chris Paul scored 23 of his game-high 27 points in the second half and he singlehandedly outscored the Dallas Mavericks in an explosive third quarter to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 109-90 victory Monday at American Airlines Center.
The Clippers, now 14-3 in their last 17 road games, rode the hot shooting of J.J. Reddick and the interior dominance of DeAndre Jordan to stay close in the first half, and then the veteran All-Star point guard took over the game. Paul scored 18 points in the third quarter, while the Mavs managed just 16 in a game that had 18 ties and 16 lead changes.
Los Angeles went from trailing by two at the half to going into the fourth quarter ahead 83-68. Paul then started the fourth quarter with five quick points to increase the lead to 19. He finished 12-for-18 from the floor to go along with seven assists and three steals.
“I think when (the game) is going like that, I’m just trying to force the action,” Paul said. “Doc (coach Doc Rivers) is always talking about finding a play and sticking with it, so it wasn’t about me making shots. It was about finding help, finding Wes (Johnson) for a shot and finding J.J. for a shot. I think when we’re playing like
that it helps our defense.”
A little more than four minutes into the fourth quarter, the Clippers expanded the lead to 100-75, dropping a 36-10 run on Dallas after L.A. had trailed 65-64 with 4:53 to go in the third quarter.
Jordan, who nearly joined Dallas as a free agent last summer, posted a monster double-double with 23 points and 20 rebounds, plus two blocked shots. He had 16 points and 14 rebounds in the first half. He was 6-of-7 from the floor, including several alley-oop slams, and Jordan even fared rather decently from the free-throw line, going 11-of-19 as Dallas turned to Hack-a-Jordan on several occasions.
“Now you know why we wanted him,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said.
Jordan and Redick, who finished with 22 points, including going 4-of-6 from 3-point range, combined for 32 of L.A.’s 50 first-half points. Reserve guard Jamal Crawford added 15 points.
“He was awesome,” Rivers said of Jordan. “He was dominant and that’s probably why they wanted him here so bad.”
The Clippers, who continue to play surprisingly well without injured All-Star forward Blake Griffin, avoided consecutive losses, and crept a little closer to No. 3 seed Oklahoma City in the Western Conference playoff chase. The Clippers (41-21), now 1 1/2 games behind the Thunder, play at Oklahoma City on Wednesday.
Dallas (33-31), once with its sights set on challenging Memphis for the No. 5 seed, lost its third consecutive game with two of those defeats coming on its home floor. The Mavs fell back into a tie with Portland for the No. 6 seed.
“This one sucks, it sucks even more coming off an away (loss), we lost to Denver (on Sunday),” Mavs guard Wesley Matthews said. “We should have had that game twice and playing this team tough for three quarters or whatever, but we’ve got to be a defensive team. It starts with getting back. How many easy points do we give up? Because our points aren’t coming easy.”
Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki finished with a team-high 22 points on streaky 9-of-19 shooting. The 37-year-old had to be looking around wondering who was going to give him some help. He scored as many points as the Mavs’ other four starters combined. Dallas shot 39 percent from the floor in the first half and that mark only dropped, finishing at 37.0 percent.
Forward Chandler Parsons was 3-of-12 from the floor for nine points, Matthews missed all six of his shots, five from 3-point range, and finished with two points. Deron Williams had nine points on 2-of-7 shooting. Reserve forward David Lee was the only other Mavs player to score in double figures with 13 points, but on a less-than-efficient 4-of-11 shooting.
