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 The center demolished the depleted Dallas Mavericks for 22
points, an NBA season-high and career-high 27 rebounds and three
blocked shots, leading the travel-weary Clippers to a 115-98 victory
Monday night at the American Airlines Center.
Los Angeles closed out its drama-filled road trip with a 3-5 record
and without All-Star forward Blake Griffin, who underwent surgery
Monday to remove a staph infection in his right elbow. He is
expected to miss at least three weeks.
In the Mavs, the Clippers found a team just as desperate to reach
the All-Star break in 48 more hours. The Mavs were already without
point guard Rajon Rondo for a fifth consecutive game due to a
fractured orbital bone, and they lost both their leading rebounder
Tyson Chandler and leading scorer Monta Ellis in the opening four
minutes of the game.
Chandler twisted his left ankle after barely playing 90 seconds, and
Ellis soon exited after bruising his left hip. Afterward, Mavs coach
Rick Carlisle said he had no updates on either player other than
saying he believes Ellis has "some kind of strain."
"It was a problem, the guy had 27 rebounds," Carlisle said of
playing without the 7-foot-1 Chandler, who ranks fifth in the league
in rebounding. "(Jordan) looked like Wilt Chamberlain out there
playing in 1963, you know. Really he did. He played great, and we
didn't have any good answers."
 The Clippers, who got starting guard J.J. Redick back after he
missed three games with back spasms, certainly were in no mood to
empathize. They needed the victory in the competitive Western
Conference race coming off five losses in six games, including a
blowout defeat Sunday at Oklahoma City.
The win allowed Los Angeles (34-19) to avoid its first five-game
losing streak since 2011. The Clippers slipped back ahead of the San
Antonio Spurs for sixth place and closed the gap with fifth-place
Dallas (35-19). The Mavs, meanwhile, are feeling very fortunate to
have rallied from 11 points down against the Portland Trail Blazers
in the final 2:50 of regulation Saturday to win in overtime.
There would be no comeback Monday, as Dallas' thin depth was exposed
without Chandler manning the middle. His absence provided Jordan
extraordinarily open spaces to dominate the boards. For the fifth
time this season, the 6-foot-11 Jordan grabbed at least 20 rebounds.
Among his haul against the Mavs were 11 offensive boards.
Clippers point guard Chris Paul recorded a double-double by halftime
and finished with 25 points and 13 assists. Sixth man Jamal Crawford
scored 22 points, and Redick came back to score 15 points and sink
three of four shots from beyond the arc.
Jordan tied his season high in points, accomplished just four games
ago at Brooklyn. He shot 8-for-12 from the floor Monday, 6-for-9
from the free-throw line.
"D.J. was -- I don't know why people don't vote for him (for the
All-Star team). It's too late, but my gosh, 27 and 22 is dominant,"
Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "He was guarding guards defensively.
He just did everything for us."
Dallas hung tough through the early adversity thanks to reserve
forward Charlie Villanueva's smoking hot hand. He hit five of his
first six shots on his way to scoring 17 of his game-high and
season-high 26 points in the first half.
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Dallas took a 40-38 lead, but then its lack of depth and inside
muscle took hold. The Clippers rolled off 14 consecutive points
midway through the second quarter and then closed out the half on a
14-7 run for a 66-53 halftime lead.
"They were angry, but we've been angry for three or four games,"
Rivers said of his team. "We knew we were going to play well. I felt
that way. I didn't know (if) we were going to win or not; you never
know that. We're playing an excellent team in Dallas. But I just
thought overall the ball movement tonight might have been as well as
we've moved it."
Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki, who said the team does not expect
Chandler and Ellis to play Wednesday against Utah, finished with 18
points. Forward Chandler Parsons had 16 points and a season-high 12
rebounds, and J.J. Barea, Dallas' starting point guard in Rondo's
absence, had 15 points and seven assists.
Dallas can only hope the injuries to Chandler and Ellis are minor.
"Obviously, it hurt losing two of our main guys and DeAndre played
extremely well," Parsons said. "He's very active and athletic. Tyson
would have been an equalizer on that, but we have other guys who
need to step up to the challenge. DeAndre was great all game, but
they had a lot of guys make big plays. We shot ourselves in the foot
a lot with silly turnovers and bad shots."
The Clippers can finally exhale briefly after getting the
much-needed win against a short-handed foe. They return home to face
the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to end their portion of the
pre-All-Star break schedule. The long road trip was necessitated due
to the preparations for the Grammy Awards, which were held Sunday at
Staples Center, Los Angeles' home arena.
NOTES: Clippers C Glen Davis was back in the rotation after leaving
Sunday's loss at Oklahoma City due to back spasms. ... Mavs G Rajon
Rondo, who missed his fifth consecutive game, is ruled out through
the All-Star break due to facial fractures. ... Dallas wraps up its
pre-All-Star Game schedule at home Wednesday against the Utah Jazz.
... Mavs F Dirk Nowitzki is now tied with Hakeem Olajuwon for 26th
place on the NBA's all-time games list with 1,238 ... F Charlie
Villanueva's 26 points marked his highest scoring game since Nov.
13, 2010, at the Clippers (30 points) ... The Clippers won the first
two of three meetings against Dallas by an average of 117.5 to 99.
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