LOS ANGELES – The Dallas Mavericks survived a major scare when Luka Doncic went tumbling over the expensive front
row seats at Crypto.com Arena and fell onto the concrete walkway during the second half of Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
While Doncic was OK after the fall, unfortunately, the Mavs couldn’t survive the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points and Norman Powell added 27 as the Clippers broke a six-game losing streak with a 113-101 triumph over the Mavs. Leonard also came up with a major offensive rebound and back-breaking three-pointer which stymied the Mavs and dropped their record to 23-19 entering Thursday’s game in the same building against the Los Angeles Lakers.
All is well on the Mavs’ home front after Doncic stumbled, then went flying over the front row seats in the fourth quarter and landing on the concrete walkway area. That sent Mavs personnel running in Doncic’s direction to make sure the fifth-year superstar point guard was OK.
“I’m good,” Doncic said. “I lost my balance there, so that’s why I went into the stands.”
It was a night where the Mavs spent the night off-balanced while unable to put enough sustained efforts together at both ends of the court to offset what the Clippers were establishing. The Clippers led from wire-to-wire and were able to run their record to 22-21.
Behind timely baskets from Leonard and Powell, the Clippers held a massive 69-47 lead at intermission as the Mavs had all sorts of problems trying to 
get the ball in the basket while the Clippers were doubling Doncic and forcing the ball into the hands of his teammates.
“Our energy and effort (weren’t) there in that first half,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I thought in the second half we were better being able to execute (and) understanding we’ve seen this the majority of the season when teams are going to double and take the ball out of Luka’s hands.
“It’s just the spacing wasn’t very good there in the first half. So we talked about it at halftime, we made the corrections and we started to execute where the guys knew where to go, and then we started making shots. But when we don’t score, it really affects our defense. You saw that in the first half.”
Despite the slow start, the Mavs — they trailed by as much as 23 points — mustered enough energy to crawl to within 104-96 with 2:50 remaining following a three-pointer by Doncic. Then, Leonard produced the biggest play of the game when he grabbed a missed three-pointer by Marcus Morris Sr. and fired in a shot from downtown to pad the Clippers’ lead to 107-96 with slightly more than two minutes left.
“It was big,” Kidd said, describing Leonard’s huge offensive rebound and basket. “To get the miss (three-point attempt by Morris) we had to box out, but we were small.
“We were small most of the night with five guards out there trying to play big. (We were) just trying to get the rebounds or loose balls. That was a big miss and Kawhi was at the right place at the right time, then makes the three.”
The Mavs were small because center Dwight Powell left the game for good in the first half after suffering a right hip contusion. Dallas was already without center Maxi Kleber (right hamstring tear), forward Dorian Finney-Smith (right adductor strain) and guard Josh Green (right elbow sprain).
Thus, the injuries have tested the Mavs’ depth, especially on a night when the Clippers outscored them on second-chance points, 20-6.
The Mavs were outre
bounded, 54-42 overall, and Doncic said the defensive effort wasn’t there in the first half.
“We played bad in the first half,” he said. “We played good in the second half, but not in the first half.
“They had nine offensive rebounds in the opening half. It’s hard to win when you get outrebounded like that.”
Kidd added that: “We’ve got to do better with the details of the game plan.”
Doncic, who finished with 43 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, drilled a three-pointer as the Mavs again got within eight points (107-99) of the Clippers with two minutes left. But Leonard was fouled attempting a three-pointer, and he nailed all three free throws to bump the Clippers’ lead back up to 11 points (110-99) with 1:40 left.
“We’re just running out of bodies,” Kidd said. “We got (rookie Jaden) Hardy out there, we got Reggie (Bullock). We’re playing everybody we can. On top of that we’re running everyone else’s minutes up.
“Spencer (Dinwiddie) plays 40 (minutes and scored 13 points), LD is always going to play 40 (minutes) until we can get healthy. But if you look at the minutes for our starters, they’re high.”
On this night, most of the Mavs’ offense was generated by Doncic, who had just 12 points, two rebounds and two assists at intermission, primarily because the Clippers doubled him almost every time he touched the basketball. Still, Doncic exploded for 31 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the second half.
The Mavs finished the game shooting 43.5 percent from the field (30-of-69) and 31.6 percent from downtown (12-of-38). Meanwhile, the Clippers converted 45.3 percent of their shots (39-of-86) and 38.7 percent of their three-pointers (12-of-31).
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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