Mavericks-Clippers Preview

By TAYLOR BECHTOLD
Posted Jan 08 2013 1:07PM

While their franchise-record winning streak came to an end earlier this month, the Los Angeles Clippers are hoping to keep another impressive run going a little longer.

The Clippers will try to extend their franchise-record home winning streak to 13 on Wednesday night when they host the struggling Dallas Mavericks.

Los Angeles (27-8), which owns the NBA's best record by a half-game over Oklahoma City, won a club-record 17 straight overall before back-to-back road losses at Denver and Golden State Jan. 1-2.

The Clippers, however, haven't stopped winning at home since suffering a 105-98 loss to New Orleans on Nov. 26. After beating the rival Lakers 107-102 on Friday to match the record of 11 established in 1978-79 - the franchise's first in San Diego - Los Angeles set the new mark with a 115-89 victory over the Warriors on Saturday.

"We've been pretty good at home," Chris Paul said. "It's all about our fans, and we feed off them. So we've got to keep making this a tough place to play."

Paul finished with 27 points and nine assists on Saturday despite exiting after Los Angeles had built a 96-60 lead with 2:40 left in the third quarter. The perennial All-Star has averaged 26.7 points on 55.1 percent shooting in his best three-game stretch of the season.

After averaging just 9.7 points while shooting 33.3 percent from the field in his previous three games, Blake Griffin has bounced back with 44 points on 17 for 28 shooting in his last two contests.

Griffin had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the Clippers' 112-90 victory over the visiting Mavericks on Dec. 5 as Los Angeles outscored Dallas 62-30 in the paint.

The Clippers rank among the league leaders in points in the paint (47.0 per game) and are 23-2 when they score at least 40 in the lane.

Los Angeles outscored its last two opponents 108-64 in the paint without shooting guard Jamal Crawford, who is again questionable after missing those contests because of a sore left foot.

Crawford, who had a game-high 20 points in the first meeting against Dallas (13-22), ranks among the top-scoring reserves in the NBA at 16.5 points per game.

The Clippers have averaged 107.1 points during their 12-game home streak, more than five points better than their season average (101.9). That's bad news for Dallas, which is 1-13 on the road when opponents score 100 points or more.

The Mavericks have lost eight of nine away from home and 12 of 14 overall, dropping their third straight with a 100-94 loss at Utah on Monday. Even with Dirk Nowitzki back in the lineup, Dallas has dropped nine of 10 - with its only win coming at league-worst Washington on Jan. 1.

"I know one thing: we're going to keep on pushing," said Nowitzki. "I'm going to keep on getting in better shape."

After scoring 11 points or fewer in his first five games back from knee surgery, Nowitzki has put up at least 19 in his last three.

The Mavericks have begun showing some signs of life offensively as Nowitzki has rounded into form, averaging 100.5 points on 45.6 percent shooting in January. They had averaged 92.3 points while shooting 42.5 percent in their final nine games in December.

The Clippers are seeking their fourth win in five games against Dallas following a 10-game skid in the series.

Clippers beat Mavs 99-93 for 13th home win in row

By BETH HARRIS
Posted Jan 10 2013 2:27AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Los Angeles Clippers looked like the team with the NBA's best record in stretches. They were flat and sloppy at other times, and still pulled out the win.

Chris Paul had 19 points and 16 assists in beating the Dallas Mavericks 99-93 on Wednesday night, extending the Clippers' franchise-record home winning streak to 13 games.

"We'll take the win, but we know we can play better," he said. "We came out a little flat, but it's not going to be merry every night. It's a good win for us to grit it out and fight it out against a tough team."

Matt Barnes added 19 points off the bench, and Blake Griffin had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers (29-8), who took sole possession of the league's best record from Oklahoma City with their third straight win overall.

"We're not going to win pretty all the time," Barnes said.

Vinny Del Negro earned his 100th victory in his 184th game as Clippers coach, making him the fastest to reach the century mark in franchise history. But he was in no mood to note the occasion, clearly irked by his team's defensive breakdowns and its 21 turnovers.

"It wasn't a very productive game," Del Negro said. "We weren't as consistent as we need to be. We had so many turnovers it was hard to get a rhythm offensively. When we're struggling offensively, we got to lock down defensively."

Darren Collison scored 22 points for Dallas. O.J. Mayo added 17 and Dirk Nowitzki had 15. At 13-23, the Mavs fell 10 games below .500 for the first time since March 30, 2000, two months after Mark Cuban bought the team. They've lost four in a row overall and three straight on the road, where they are 5-16.

"This is painful right now, to be losing like this when we were so close," Shawn Marion said. "It seems like when we get right there, we're going to do something to mess it up. We played a solid game, but it just seemed like the little things kept adding up and it killed us."

The Clippers led the entire first half, fell behind by 10 points in third quarter and then regained the lead for the first time in the fourth on Paul's steal and layup that made it 82-80.

They took the lead for good on Barnes' 3-pointer that keyed an 8-0 run. Los Angeles forced former Clipper Chris Kaman into two misses while Collison airballed another shot in that stretch as the Clippers went ahead 90-83.

Nowitzki's jumper pulled Dallas to 95-93. Griffin hit a turnaround jumper to give the Clippers a four-point lead before Collison missed a 3-pointer in the right corner.

"My performance was pretty poor. I need to do a much better job of taking care of the ball," Griffin said. "But I love the way our second unit came in during the end of the third and got us back."

Barnes grabbed a defensive rebound and Caron Butler came up with two big offensive boards off consecutive misses by Griffin and Paul with 39 seconds left. After taking two timeouts, Paul missed an 18-footer with 24 seconds left and Dallas called timeout. Collison scrambled looking for a shot before he passed to Vince Carter, who missed.

"Those offensive rebounds at the end just killed us," Marion said.

Paul got fouled and made both shots for a 99-93 lead while fans chanted "MVP!"

"In the fourth quarter, we needed to stay with the aggressiveness," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "But they turned it up and we just didn't get it done. We've got to keep working. We've got to do a few things better, get some more rebounds and knock down some more shots."

Los Angeles played flatly in the third, when the Mavs used a 22-8 run to take a 75-65 lead. Marion's 3-pointer early in the spurt gave Dallas its first lead of the game and snapped the Clippers' streak of leading for 10 straight quarters. The Clippers rallied at the end of the period, scoring seven in a row, punctuated by Barnes' 3-pointer that beat the buzzer to trail 75-72.

"It's disheartening losing these games," former Clipper Elton Brand said. "I haven't been through a stretch like this in a long, long time. We've been competing in most of these games, and we just have to find a way to close them out and win them."

The Clippers led the entire first half, sparked by Barnes' 11 points, including three 3-pointers. The Mavs scored seven straight points to tie the game at 50-all on Collison's hook before Paul got around Mayo to hit a running jumper at the buzzer, keeping the Clippers ahead 52-50 at the break.

NOTES: Jack Ramsay previously held the franchise record for fastest coach to 100 wins, doing so in 223 games with the Buffalo Braves. Former Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy reached the mark in 224 games. ... Clippers G Jamal Crawford returned after missing the last two games because of a sore left foot. "The foot is OK, the legs were a little heavy," he said. ... Clippers F Grant Hill did not make his expected return after missing all season with a right knee bone bruise. Coach Vinny Del Negro said Hill has not had any setbacks and would practice a couple more days before being evaluated for Saturday's game against Orlando. ... The Mavs signed free-agent guard Mike James to a 10-day contract on Wednesday. The 10-year NBA veteran had played two games with the Texas Legends of the NBA D-League.

Notebook: Clippers 99, Mavericks 93

Dan Arritt, for NBA.com
Posted Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:48 AM - Updated Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:48 AM

THE FACTS: As long as the Clippers have Chris Paul, they'll be tough to beat in close games, whether they're pretty or not. Paul came through with another dazzling display Wednesday night against the visiting Mavericks, producing 19 points, a season-high 16 assists and two key fourth-quarter steals, leading L.A. back from a double-digit deficit late in the third quarter and onto a 99-93 victory at Staples Center, its 13th consecutive win at home.

THE STAT: Paul's last three games have been his best stretch of the season. He had a season-high 30 points and 13 assists in Friday's win against the Lakers, came back with 27 points a day later in a runaway win against Golden State and then nearly single-handedly disposed of the Mavericks. In the last two games, he combined to shoot 18-for-25 from the field and deliver 25 assists with just three turnovers.

QUOTABLE: "[Paul's] a great player but we've got to do more things to help ourselves win. I'm not going to say one guy beat us. They had some fortunate things happen."

-- Dallas coach Rick Carlisle

TURNING POINT: The Clippers were staring at a 10-point deficit with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but managed to whittle it to three heading into the fourth. Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford made 3-pointers to bookend an 8-0 run that put L.A ahead, 90-83, with 6:45 left. Dallas managed to get as close as two on a jumper by Dirk Nowitzki with 2:25 remaining, but Blake Griffin got a generous bounce on a two-foot fall-away and the Mavericks couldn't answer, missing their final three field-goal attempts.

HOT: Barnes continues to build confidence in his outside shot. He matched his career high with five 3-pointers on eight attempts and finished with 19 points. When he scores in double figures off the bench this season, the Clippers are 19-0. His seven rebounds also helped the Clippers to a 59-41 advantage on the boards.

QUOTABLE II: "Coach has confidence in me shooting the ball. I didn't shoot the ball well early but he stuck with me and told me to continue to shoot. That's what happens when coach has confidence in me."

-- Matt Barnes

NOT: In his third game back in the starting lineup since undergoing knee surgery, Nowitzki got off to a slow start before making all three of his field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter. He finished with 15 points and 5-for-13 shooting and committed a team-high four turnovers. An 87.8 percent career free-throw shooter, he even missed two of his six attempts from the line.

GOOD MOVE: Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro made a surprising decision to sub Caron Butler for Crawford with 2:40 remaining and L.A. clinging to a three-point lead. Crawford has been one of the team's top closers this season, at one point leading the league in fourth-quarter scoring. But Crawford also missed the last two games with a sore left foot and was having trouble staying in front of Dallas guard O.J. Mayo. Del Negro liked having Barnes guard Mayo down the stretch and put Butler on Vince Carter. What nobody expected was the two offensive rebounds Butler grabbed on the same possession in the final minute, allowing the Clippers to burn precious clock.

BAD MOVE: Clippers center DeAndre Jordan seemed to be everywhere during the game's first two minutes. He drew a foul on Chris Kaman on the first offensive possession, stole the ball from Nowitzki on the first defensive series and scored the first six points for the Clippers. But instead of delivering a monster game, he quickly faded, finishing with eight points, five rebounds and a team-high five turnovers. Probably not surprising, he sat and watched the entire fourth quarter.

QUOTABLE II: "We had so many turnovers tonight it was hard to get into a rhythm offensively, especially in the first half. We just didn't make very good plays, we didn't execute very well."

-- Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro on Paul

NOTABLE: The Clippers thought they might have Grant Hill available for the first time this season, but the 40-year-old veteran wasn't quite ready to return from a bone bruise in his knee. He may give it a go Saturday against the visiting Magic. ... Dallas back-up center Brandan Wright was available after missing Monday's loss against Utah with a strained left quad, but he did not appear in the game. ... Mike James made his debut for the Mavericks after he was signed to a 10-day contract Tuesday, but the veteran point guard only played five seconds. ... Del Negro got his 100th win as Clippers coach.

UP NEXT: For the Clippers, Saturday vs. Orlando, Monday @ Memphis, Tuesday @ Houston. For the Mavericks, Thursday @ Sacramento, Saturday vs. Memphis, Monday vs. Minnesota.

• Mavericks: Cunningham, James
• Clippers: Billups, Hill, Thompkins

• Mavericks: --
• Clippers: --

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 4

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #48 Scott Foster, #34 Kevin Cutler, #59 Gary Zielinski
• Attendance: 19362
• Duration: 2:25