The LA Clippers lost a close one against the Dallas Mavericks in an ugly performance, tying their regular season series at 1-1.
Luc Mbah A Moute played tough defense against Harrison Barnes in the last seconds, but Harrison got his shot off in the paint with seconds to play to seal a Dallas Mavericks (9-21) victory against the LA Clippers (22-9) 90-88.
Barnes scored the game winner and dropped 24 points as the Mavs’ leading scorer. Dirk Nowitzki returned and scored 16 points in 15 minutes before coming out of the game. Wesley Matthews chipped in 16 points, and Deron Williams had 12 points with nine dimes.
Jamal Crawford had a game-high 26 points for the Clips, who played their first game without Chris Paul (hamstring), and third without Blake Griffin (knee surgery). J.J Redick was the only starter to score in double figures with 11. Austin Rivers played meaningful minutes with 16 points, and continued his hot shooting from three (4-of-6). DeAndre Jordan was a beast on the boards as always, grabbing 17 boards and seven points.
Jamal with drive ➡️ DJ with the dunk for tonight's TOP TIER Dunk of the Game | Presented by @ARCO. pic.twitter.com/SeIPrLxJZB
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 24, 2016
The last quarter was a back and forth affair with both teams making mental lapses and not much offense. The Clippers led for most of the game until the finals minutes when the Mavericks cut the lead from eight to tie it at 88. Jordan had a chance to take the lead with two free throws, but missed both and the Mavericks came back to score with seconds left.
The Clippers hit 10 threes in the first half and only three in the second half. A big reason the Mavericks were only down by one point at the half was because of Dirk and his 17 points in 15 minutes of action. L.A. was able to get open shots throughout the game, but couldn’t produce enough offense down the stretch. They shot 50 percent for the second quarter to take the lead into the half at 51-50.
Clippers shot better than 45 from the field, but had 20 turnovers for the game, including an unsightly seven in the last quarter to let the Mavericks back into the game.
Clippers lost the game
With seven turnovers in the fourth quarter the Clippers hurt themselves, especially when Jordan missed those last two free throws. As the fourth quarter went on it felt as if if, little by little, getting away from them. A turn over here or an ugly possession there. Raymond Felton is a good backup, but as a starter had some trouble, particularly in the third quarter with distributing and getting his own shot off.
Chris Paul has a deadly mid-range game and knack to create it at the elbow that helps bail out the Clippers in bad possessions, but Felton, of course, doesn’t have that ability.
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The offense stalled in the second half when the Clippers stopped making threes. They relied too much on Crawford to get points while others seemed to stand around. The bench showed signs of fatigue and with their two superstars out the ball movement stopped in crunch time and did not have a go-to person to keep getting baskets.
They could have really used Blake Griffin in this game where he would have had a strong advantage and could have been the first Clipper to score 30+ all season.
The Clippers need bigger impact from Marreese Speights and Felton, two of their free agents signed in the off-season.
Notes
Felton started in place of Paul, who is still day-to-day.
Paul Pierce started again for Blake Griffin.
The Clippers’ bench outscored Mavs bench 54-21.
Next: Clippers player grades for the first 30 games
Up next
The LA Clippers will be the away team when they play the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day. With the Injuries to the Clippers, it will look to be a closer contest than the previous games where the Clippers have won 11 in a row against their housemates.