LOS ANGELES (NBA.com exclusive) --  The Dallas Mavericks came to Los Angeles hoping to turn the page on a dreadful opening-night performance.

Mission accomplished.

The Mavericks won their second game at Staples Center in as many nights, defeating the struggling Clippers 93-84 despite a career-high 27 points from Chris Kaman.

"It's hard to win in this place, it doesn't matter if you're playing the Lakers or the Clippers," said Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle.

"To get out of here with two [wins] is an accomplishment."

Although the Mavericks (2-1) were coming off an impressive 94-80 victory Friday night against the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, they weren't taking anything for granted against the winless Clippers. After all, the Clippers were 0-6 last season when Dallas came to town and was beaten by 11.

"There was no letdown," Carlisle said. "Our concentration and our attitude was great coming into this game. Our guys knew this was going to be a tough game and the Clippers are a much better team than their record reflects."

Dallas point guard Jason Kidd said his teammates kept it simple after the emotional win the night before.

"Everybody understands that last night was last night," Kidd said.

"We felt we had to just keep ourselves in the game, come out with some energy."

Both coaches had plenty of praise for Kaman, who added 11 rebounds to his career-high point total. It was the third straight game Kaman topped 20 points, marking the first time in his seven-year career he has accomplished that feat.

"He was terrific tonight, he was our anchor," said Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy. "He came up with big basket after big basket.

Defensively he was good, and he was good on the boards. He played a very strong game."

Kaman showed early on that he had his scoring touch. He scored eight consecutive points in the first quarter and had 19 at the half.

His steal at midcourt just before halftime, followed by a three-point play, got the crowd of 13,626 on its feet.

The Mavericks went on a 17-3 run in the third and it appeared the Clippers (0-4) would fade as they had Friday night in a 111-98 loss at Utah. But they rallied to tie the game midway through the fourth.

Jason Terry scored on a drive, however, Erick Dampier put down an alley-oop pass and Dirk Nowitzki scored on a fallaway jumper to extend the lead back to seven with 30 seconds remaining.

"The home team is going to make a run at some point," Carlisle said. "The important thing is to keep you composure. We got 11 stops in the last 12 possessions. It's great evidence of what's going to help us win, and that's activity at the defensive end."

Nowitzki finished with 24 points and nine rebounds, Shawn Marion had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Terry scored 16 off the bench to lead Dallas. A less-likely contributor on the offensive end was Dampier, a 6-foot-11 center who finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

"That's a big-time line for a guy that we ask mostly to be a defender and a rebounder and a screener," Carlisle said.

The Clippers received some unexpected points from reserve point guard Sebastian Telfair. He finished with 12 points, including consecutive baskets during the Clippers' fourth-quarter run that got them back into the game. In fact, starting point guard Baron Davis played less than a minute of the final quarter, giving way to Telfair.

Dunleavy did not single out Davis for poor play, but said the team's overall effort was lacking in the second half.

"We came out and took some bad shots," Dunleavy said. "We did not aggressively attack. We didn't move the basketball like we did in the first half. They got easy baskets and we fell behind."

Eric Gordon was the only other Clipper to score in double figures, totaling 16 points.