Clippers Keep Soaring: Too Much For Dallas Mavericks

Piling up losses near the end, the Dallas Mavericks lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

The Dallas Mavericks visited the L.A. Clippers tonight, to finish off their 5-game road trip. Winners of their last three and seven of nine overall, the Clippers looked playoff-ready as they handed Dallas a 112-101 loss.

It’s worth noting that the Clippers have averaged 124 points in their last three wins. In that span, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are averaging 28 and 31 respectively.

Dallas, once again, was without guard Seth Curry (sore shoulder).

The first quarter was flat-out ugly. The Clippers, led by Chris Paul, jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Everyone got involved for L.A., including Blake Griffin who scored nine of their first 16 points. JJ Reddick’s three at the 7:10 mark made it 22-6. At this point, L.A. was perfect from the field at 9-of-9.

Devin Harris stopped the bleeding with a deep ball and JJ Barea added another to bring the score to 27-14 with 3:40 left. Those two connected in the final seconds of the quarter when Barea converted a pass from Harris with an acrobatic reverse lay-up. That helped bring the score to a respectable 35-24 to end the period.

Dallas used balanced scoring to chip away at that lead to start the second quarter. Center Salah Mejri contributed seven points, four rebounds and a block which helped cut into L.A.’s lead at 48-40.

The Clippers, led by the hot shooting JJ Reddick, responded with a 7-0 run. Capped by a half court pass from Chris Paul to Blake Griffin for an open lay-up, the lead ballooned to 55-40 with 3:50 left. Fueled by a 17-0 fast break advantage, L.A. closed out the quarter with a commanding 62-49 lead.

The trio of Reddick (18), Griffin (14) and Paul (13) nearly outscored Dallas in a one-sided first half.

As we know, no game is complete without an unexplainable push from Dallas. That’s exactly what the first half of the third quarter provided. Dallas used the three ball early and often to dig into the Clippers’ lead. Harrison Barnes and Yogi Ferrell hit back-to-back deep balls to get things rolling at the 10:42 mark. Wesley Matthews and Dirk Nowitzki followed suit.

Dallas was in the midst of an 18-11 run. Yogi went on to culminate the surge. He manufactured a run of his own, thanks to back-to-back steals and baskets. In the process, he scored nine points and bridged the gap to a surprising 73-67 deficit with 6:43 left.

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Unfortunately, much like the second quarter, the Clippers responded with a 7-0 run to cool things off for the Mavs. L.A. blew the lead wide open with a 17-6 push. They entered the final period with a 90-73 lead.

A13-4 run by Dallas is the only bright spot worth mentioning for the last quarter. The Clippers found themselves in a dog fight. A jumper from Barnes made it 97-86 with under five minutes left. They failed to get within 11 points from that point on.

Game Notes

Barnes led the Mavs with 15 points. Yogi and Barea both had 14 each. Mejri was impressive in the loss, adding 10 points and nine rebounds. Dirk was held to nine points on 4-of-11 shooting. Griffin led all scorers with 32, followed by Reddick with 25. Chris Paul chipped in 22 points and 11 assists as Deandre Jordan threw in 11 points and a game-high 20 rebounds.

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Dallas will return home Friday where they will host the San Antonio Spurs. You can catch that game at 8:30 PM ET on Fox Sports Southwest and KENS.