With an opportunity to continue their climb up the Western Conference standings, the Mavericks went toe-to-toe Monday night with the Los Angeles Clippers, but went flat offensively when it most mattered.
Trailing 85-78 after three quarters, the Mavericks pulled within 103-99 with 3:13 remaining on a Tim Hardaway Jr. 3-pointer, but went scoreless the rest of the way, losing 109-99.
The Mavericks had a chance to pull within two after Hardaway’s trey, but Luka Doncic’s pass to Kristaps Porzingis in the post was stolen by Lou Williams, typifying Dallas’ frustration the rest of the game.
Doncic finished with 25 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds, moving him to solo-11th on the NBA’s all-time triple-double list with 33, but Dallas couldn’t overcome seven Clippers scoring in double figures, or its late-game failures.
The Mavericks (20-18) attempted a franchise-record-tying-low five free-throws while losing for only the fourth time in their last 15 games.
The Clippers aren’t rivals of the Mavericks in the way San Antonio and Houston are, but it’s true that these franchises have a recent salty history.
When they met as playoff foes for the first time last August in the Disney World bubble last August, Marcus Morris St. repeatedly used rough tactics against Doncic to try to get under his skin.
In Game 1, it resulted in Porzingis getting ejected when he stepped between Morris and Doncic. In Game 6, Doncic goaded Morris into retaliation that resulted in a flagrant 2 foul and ejection, though the Clippers won the series that night.
Then, when the teams met for the first time this season, on Dec. 27 in Los Angeles’ Staples Center, the Mavericks set an NBA-record by putting a 77-27 first-half shellacking on the Clippers en route to a 124-73 blowout. But neither Morris, nor Porzingis, played in that game.
Los Angeles entered Monday’s game with four losses in its last five games, including a 20-point loss Sunday at New Orleans.
“After they beat us so bad back in L.A., and having the game we had last night,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said before Monday’s game, “hopefully our guys can bounce back and be mass and be [ticked] off about it.”
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle called the Clippers a proud veteran team and said he tried to prepare his players “for the kind of attitude and physical disposition that they’re going to need to have.”
Sure enough, the Clippers jumped to leads of 22-10 and 29-15, before Dallas scored the last five points of the first quarter to close within 31-23.
Behind the will of Doncic, the Mavericks clawed back and briefly took the lead before Los Angeles went to the locker room with a 55-50 lead.
This was the first of two meetings between these teams here in three days, and part of a pivotal stretch for Dallas as it attempts to climb the conference standings.
After hosting the Clippers again on Wednesday, the Mavericks will play Friday and Sunday at Portland, which entered Monday’s games in sixth place in the West.
“Guys are aware of the standings,” Carlisle said. “We’re going game-to-game. There’s some talk of it, but we’re focusing on getting better each and every day, preparing for each game, working at things that will help us become a better team for that particular game.
