Mavs score season-low 88 points in loss to Clippers

LOS ANGELES – The highs and lows of the Mavericks were on full display Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Some 15 days after scoring a season-high 144 points against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Mavericks tallied a season-low 88 points against the same Clippers on Saturday. It was an offensive meltdown which led to the Mavs shooting 37.4 percent from the field and losing, 107-88.

With Chris Young – the general manager of the world champion Texas Rangers – in attendance, the Mavs struck out on a night when the role players uncharacteristically failed to hold up their end of the bargain. It was akin to – to use a baseball comparison – the Mavs’ heavy hitters kept loading the bases, but the bottom of the order couldn’t get them across home plate.

Luka Doncic hurt his left thumb early in the first quarter, but shook that off to pour in a game-high 30 points to go with four assists, two steals and two blocks and was 12-of-27 from the field. And his backcourt mate – Kyrie Irving — added 26 points on 11-of-22 shots and six rebounds.

But the rest of the Mavs were in a funk and only scored 32 points, and were just 11-of-42 from the floor.

“They were physical from the start,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Just understanding we didn’t shoot the ball well. The things we talked about that were positive — we only had nine turnovers.

“But again, we just didn’t shoot the three well. We look at the stat sheets, Timmy (Hardaway Jr.) LD (Luka Doncic) and Kai (Kyrie Irving) those were the guys that pretty much carried us offensively. But we got to get other guys involved. They’ve got to knock down shots.”

The Mavs trailed by 11 points after the first (29-18) and second (56-45) quarters. Despite heroics from Doncic and Irving, the Mavs never could get the game to single digits in the second half.

The loss gave the Mavs (10-6) a 1-1 split on this six-day Los Angeles road trip. The Mavs defeated the LA Lakers on Wednesday before dropping Saturday’s contest to the Clippers (7-8).

Starting with Tuesday’s game at American Airlines Center, the Mavs will now play five of their next six games after home after opening the season by playing 10 of their first 16 games on the road.

With rookie center Dereck Lively II sidelined with a lower back contusion.

“We miss someone, when we talk about D-Live [Dereck Lively], a guy that’s going to change shots, rebound the ball,” Kidd said. “So, when you look at our center position this evening, I think we were zero-for–four.

“That’s not what D-Live does. He can put the ball in the basket. But (backup centers Richaun) Holmes and DP (Dwight Powell) were good. We just couldn’t capitalize and get those guys some shots that they had made here in the past.”

Paul George (25 points), Terance Mann (17 points), Norman Powell (15 points) and Russell Westbrook (14 points) led the way for the Clippers.

Interestingly, at the half, James Harden had just five points and Kawhi Leonard only scored two. Leonard didn’t get his first field goal until the 2:52 mark of the third quarter, but the Clippers were still ahead, 76-55.

Leonard wound up just 2-of-12 from the field with eight points, and Harden also scored only eight points on 2-of-8 shooting, while Hardaway collected 12 points for the Mavs.

“Defensively, we were really good tonight,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, “I know Luka had 22 (points) in the first half and only had eight (points) in the second half.

“But I thought we did a really good job game plan-wise and showing Luka the blitz, sometimes switching, sometimes firing, just trying to keep him off balance, because like I said he always plays great against us, so just defensively, when you struggle to shoot the basketball — like Kawhi and James didn’t have a great night — and to beat a good team like this, says a lot.”

Irving did his part in taking some of the scoring pressure away from Doncic. But the Clippers were relentless, and kept coming whenever the Mavs even came close to mounting a rally.

“The hardest thing to do in this league is score at a very high rate and especially do it back-to-back possessions, let alone one possession,” Irving said. “So, I just tried to ease our pain tonight a little bit on that end.

“Shots were in and out, we took some tough ones, but alleviating the pressure, it can’t just come from me. It’s got to come from all guys on the team. And again, we got our butts handed to us tonight and we just have to take this loss and continue to learn from it.”

The Mavs only turned the ball over nine times, but also missed 29 of their 38 shots from three-point range. It was as if the basket had a lid on it – especially for the role players.

“I think we need to be a little

bit better on that, and I have to make better reads for sure,” Doncic said. “Just make the easy play. Don’t try to do anything hard.

“Just make the easy play, then we can play four

-on-three. That’s what I’ve always said. It’s not on them it’s on me, so I have to make the simple play.”

And that huge 57-37 advantage the Clippers enjoyed on the boards also didn’t help the Mavs’ cause.

“Overall, we’ve been good on the turnovers,” Doncic said. “That gives you extra possessions. Those and rebounds. Those are two things that are obviously very important for the game.”

Now that this game is over – and one of their toughest stretches of the season is behind them — the Mavs know it’s important to make up some ground when they return home.

X: @DwainPrice