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 "We showed some character coming out here tonight and just fighting,
fighting for this crowd," power forward Dirk Nowitzki said.
"Obviously, there was a lot of hype in the air, but we tried to stay
cool and play our game. When we keep moving the ball, we're tough to
guard."
Easily the most anticipated matchup of the young season for fans of
the Dallas Mavericks went as well as they could have hoped.
Dallas faithful showed up to boo Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre
Jordan and cheer their underdog Mavericks to victory.
The former was easy enough. Nowitzki took care of the latter.
The 37-year-old future Hall of Famer scored a season-high 31 points
to lead the Mavericks to a 118-108 win over Jordan and the Clippers
at American Airlines Center.
Nowitzki confounded the Clippers with a shooting display for the
ages. He drilled 11-of-14 shots from the field, his last being a
banked 3-pointer 1:05 to play to give the Mavericks a 113-108 lead.
"The last shot was pure luck," said Nowitzki, who added 11 rebounds.
The Mavericks (4-4) evened their home record at 2-2 and avenged a
16-point road loss to the Clippers earlier this season.
Jordan came in as public enemy No. 1 in Dallas after leaving Mark
Cuban at the free-agency altar during the summer. Jordan had
originally agreed to join the Mavs before famously changing his mind
and re-signing with the Clippers.
Even though the Clippers and Mavericks had met Oct. 29 in Los
Angeles, this meeting took on added significance. Jordan took the
court he nearly called home.
The 7-footer, booed every time he touched the ball and doubly loud
at the foul line, didn't have much of an impact. Jordan finished
with nine points and 11 rebounds.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers didn't call it an overly emotional game
for his team.
"I thought the emotion was in the crowd," he said. "I thought on the
floor you had two teams fighting trying to win a basketball game.
That's emotional anyways, but other than that if it were a January
afternoon, the game would have been played the same."
The Mavericks were in control for much of the third quarter, opening
a 14-point lead on Nowitzki's hot hand. The Clippers reeled off an
8-0 spurt to make it a game going into the fourth quarter.
Los Angeles guard Austin Rivers' driving layup tied the score at 94
with more than seven minutes left. Rivers (16 points) drilled a
3-pointer shortly after for a 99-97 edge for the visitors.
Dallas shooting guard Wesley Matthews (season-high 25 points)
knocked down a 3-pointer to knot it at 100 with the Mavs in the
midst of intentionally fouling Jordan.
Clippers point guard Chris Paul (11 points, 11 assists) hit
desperation 3-pointer to give his team its last lead at 106-104.
Dallas outscored L.A. 14-2 to end the game.
"I'm just happy that we won," Matthews said. "We laid an egg last
night in New Orleans and that's not us. We needed a game like this
for our morale, for our fans, for everybody in Dallas to let
everyone know that we can play this game. We can jell together. We
can beat the best in the West."
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The Mavs took the lead for good on two free throws from center Zaza
Pachulia.
That irony wasn't lost on Dallas coach Rick Carlisle.
"Our guy is a 90-percent free-throw shooter," Carlisle deadpanned
before a revealing pause. "And we love him."
Jordan went 3 of 9 at the line.
Clippers power forward Blake Griffin scored a team-high 21 points,
his eighth consecutive game with at least 20.
"It was great that we came back, but they didn't shoot below 50
percent offensively the whole night and we were never above about 45
percent," Rivers said. "The fact that we were still in the game was
great. That shows how mentally tough we are."
Dallas shot 55.3 percent from the field (42 of 76) and held the
Clippers to 43 percent (37 of 86). Nowitzki made 5 of 6 from 3-point
range.
All five Mavs starters scored in double figures. Co-point guards
Deron Williams and Raymond Felton each had 13 and combined for nine
assists. Pachulia had 10 points and 10 boards.
The Mavs were without small forward Chandler Parsons, who was held
out in a precautionary move after playing the night before. Parsons'
minutes have been restricted coming off offseason knee surgery.
The Clippers went on a 16-3 run to take a 10-point lead (31-21) late
in the first quarter. Paul had seven assists in the quarter.
Dallas made a push early in the second quarter led by rookie guard
Justin Anderson and second-year forward Dwight Powell to regain the
lead. The Mavs shot the ball well and were up for most of the
quarter.
Los Angeles closed strong and went into locker room up 54-53 after
reserve guard Jamal Crawford's corner 3-pointer at the end of the
half.
NOTES: Clippers coach Doc Rivers clearly wasn't in the mood to
discuss (again) C DeAndre Jordan spurning Dallas in free agency.
"Please get over this," Rivers said pregame. Though Mavs owner Mark
Cuban encouraged fans to boo Jordan heartedly, Dallas' franchise
player has moved on. "It was in July," PF Dirk Nowitzki said. "We're
in freaking November now. This is not an issue anymore." ... The
Mavericks were on the second night of a back-to-back after losing
Tuesday at New Orleans. ... The Clippers complete a back-to-back
Thursday at Phoenix. ... Clippers PG Chris Paul had 11 assists to
give him 7,006 for his career. He's the fourth-fastest to that mark,
behind John Stockton, Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson.
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