Apparently, laughers in the NBA only happen these days when somebody hurls a really good insult in the locker room.
They never happen on the court, even when it looks like a good old-fashioned tail-kicking might be in the offing.
Another game came down to the final possessions Tuesday night as the Mavericks relied on terrific three-point shooting late by Reggie Bullock and Luka Dončić to scratch out a 103-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers at American Airlines Center.
Even with a 25-point lead in the first half, the Mavericks ended up fighting to the end against a defensive-minded Clippers’ team. And they know losing leads is going to be a much bigger problem down the line if they don’t address it soon.
The Clippers had scored just 32 points in the first half, when the Mavericks’ defense was as good as it’s been all season.
But the third quarter was a disaster, with the Clippers scoring more in those 12 minutes (33 points) than they did in the opening 24.
“We got to come out of the half better, said Finney-Smith. “We had ‘em by 25 points. We got to step on their necks.”
When they didn’t, the fourth quarter turned into a possession-by-possession battle with momentum tilting on every basket. The Mavericks have made it their calling to play nail-biters this season and this one was no different.
Bullock delivered big-time for the Mavericks. The third of his fourth-quarter three-pointers put them ahead 96-93 with 2 minutes remaining. After Paul George threw a pass that was closer to a referee than anybody else, the Mavs got it to Bullock again and he nailed another 3.
The Clippers would not die, though.
They scored the next five points. But Luka would throw in a late-shot-clock dagger three-pointer with 27.6 seconds left to make it 102-98.
“I was a bit lucky,” Dončić said. “The ball found me somehow. I just shot it. It went in. I got a little lucky, but we’ll take it.”
The Clippers still weren’t dead. They scored quickly, and then Bullock made only the first of two free throws, leaving the Clippers a three-pointer away from overtime.
The Mavericks fouled George before he could get a long ball in the air. With 4.2 seconds left, he made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second.Robert Covington had his hands on the ball, but could not control it. And the Mavericks inbounded and ran out the clock.
Dončić finished with 35 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. He had lots of help from Dorian Finney-Smith, Christian Wood, Spencer Dinwiddie and, of course, Bullock.
And everybody was happy to see Bullock, who was shooting 29.4 percent from 3-point range coming into this game, hit four of them in crunch time.
“Amazing. I’m so happy,” said Dončić. “A lot of people put a lot of pressure on Reggie, talking about he can’t make a shot. But the things he does for us on the court don’t show up in statistics a lot. But today he showed up. The way he defends, and Doe, obviously, too, they’re key players to us for sure.”
Finney-Smith would finish with 21 points on 7-of-13 three-point shooting. Bullock had 13 points and the Mavericks were plus-nine when he was on the floor.
Said Finney-Smith about Bullock: “Reggie don’t make excuses. We all know what he can do. He makes shots. So we trust him, too. You could see the ball found him. That’s big heart. Struggling the last couple games and coming out here and shooting the ball with confidence.”
And coach Jason Kidd echoed those sentiments.
“You talk about Reggie, he’s a competitor,” Kidd said. “Everyone knows he’s maybe not shooting up to par. But this is a marathon. And sometimes, you might start off not on pace. But at some point, you still have December, January, February, March, April, May and June. For critics, that’s hard to do. People who criticize him, I’d love to see them participate and try to do that. It’s not easy.
“And I think it shows a lot of trust in his teammates to still throw him the ball, because he is open and he is a pro and he never makes any excuse. That’s who Reggie is. But he won’t talk about the shots he made, he’ll talk about the free throw he missed.”
When the Mavericks finally had extinguished the Clippers, the subject quickly turned to Wednesday night’s second half of the back-to-back against Houston.
Will Dončić get a rest day for the first time this season? Especially after putting in extra time on Tuesday, playing just 17 seconds shy of 40 minutes?
“We’ll see about that,” Luka said. “I think tomorrow, me and coach are going to decide. It’s been a long time playing basketball. Not a lot of breaks. We’ll see tomorrow. After that two games back-to-back, I was really tired. But now I feel great now.”
In the end against the Clippers, it reinforced just how close things are in the Western Conference, where eight teams started Tuesday’s play within two games of each other at the top of the standings.
“Everything’s balanced, East and West,” coach Jason Kidd said. “You can be beaten on any night. There are some surprise teams that are playing well. There are some teams that are just hovering around .500. But it’s still early. It’s only November. There’s still a long way to go. Separation probably starts around Christmas.”
The Mavericks and Clippers looked like teams with quite a bit of separation between them in the first half. But the costly third quarter filled this one with drama down the stretch, setting the stage for Bullock and friends to pull out the win.
Twitter: @ESefko
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