Los Angeles Clippers lose (99-83) to Dallas Mavericks at home … again
After stumbling in the end against the Memphis Grizzlies in their Friday night encounter, the message was loud and clear from the Dallas Mavericks Coach to his team, “there is no need to panic”. First
time on the road this season, the Mavericks were playing against a struggling Los Angeles Clippers team, which lost both of its earlier encounters and were hoping for a turnaround at home against a team that is 12 of 13 overall in the matchup.
Playing under their new coach Vinny Del Negro, the Clippers have found it difficult to keep their composure at the start of the second half this season. On Wednesday night, in their first match against
the Portland Blazers, the Clippers slipped in their first bucket of the second half going 3:49 minutes into the third quarter and they followed the performance on Friday night, where they were on the receiving end of 21-2 assault in the third period by the
Golden state Warriors.
This time around as well, it was the dreaded third quarter for the Clippers that proved to be their undoing. The Mavericks outscored them by 10 points in that period and eased to a 99-83 victory. In
a match where six Mavericks players got into the double figures, the proceedings started with Dallas on course for a fourth straight win over the Clippers at Staples Centre. The Mavericks raced to a 23-12 lead going into the eighth minute of the first quarter
but the Clippers clawed their way back late in the quarter to finish it at 27-23.
The Los Angeles team further upped its momentum going into the second period. Eric Bledsoe’s floating jump shot tied the score with 10:32 to go in the quarter. The Clippers went into the lead soon after,
and led at 44-38 with nearly four minutes to go in the period. Jason Terry rallied back for the Mavericks to score six points in succession to level the score again. The highlight of the match, though, came in the dying seconds of the half. With seconds to
go, and the Mavericks trailing by one, Jason Kidd, the veteran point guard, snatched a rebound and let go a 65-foot shot from inside the three point arc. The ball somehow found the bottom of the net, only for the spectators to be shocked and his teammates
to go berserk.
This extravagant shot from Kidd really spurred the Mavericks and they turned their game on to dominate the Clippers completely in the third quarter. The Clippers’ defence was again found wanting in the
second half to continue a trend which has plagued them this season. The Mavericks team held a 12-point lead by the end of the third quarter and they did not relinquish it till the end of the match.
Caron Butler led the way for the Dallas Mavericks scoring 17 points. Dirk Nowitzki, who played superbly on Friday night against Memphis, netted 16 points to go with seven rebounds. Jason Terry, Jason
Kidd, Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood all went into the double figures with a combined shooting of 46.8% for the defending South West Division Champions.
In comparison, the Clippers missed 14 of their first 16 shots and netted 28-for-82 the entire match. Blake Griffin carried his team with 16 points and nine rebounds. Chris Kaman scored 13 points with
13 rebounds with DeAndre Jordan also slipping in ten points. The shooting percentage and the defensive play let the Clippers down as they fall 0-3 for the third consecutive year. A disappointed Clipper’s Coach highlighted his team’s deficiencies post match.
“Our tempo has to pick up. I don't like our tempo right now,” Del Negro said. “We have to push the ball a little bit more and get more field goal attempts. We have to get the ball in the attack some more, then get into play sets and set up screens and be more
efficient with our timing and execution.”
Tags: