The Mavericks have been outstanding this season at surviving absences by a lot of their key players, even when Luka Dončić or Kyrie Irving have been missing.
But when both are out?
That’s another story and it’s a challenge that was just a bit too steep on Thursday.
The Mavericks pushed the Los Angeles Clippers hard for nearly three quarters, but the manpower shortage – and James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac – got the best of them as the Clips opened up a 16-point lead late in the third quarter and blew it open down the stretch for a 118-95 victory at American Airlines Center.
The Mavericks were missing their superstar backcourt tandem. Dončić was out with a left heel contusion and Irving missed with a sore right shoulder. It is uncertain whether either of them will return for Saturday’s rematch between these teams.
Their absence represents a combined 52.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 13.5 assists missing out of the Mavericks’ lineup.
As for the difference missing them made?
“Of course (there was a difference,” said Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 19 points while starting for Luka. “Obviously two of the best players in the world. And organizationally, we know where we like to get to in packages with one or the other. So there’s a difference playing without (both of) them the entire game, for sure.”
Compounding matters, Jaden Hardy (sprained right ankle) also was out, leaving the Mavericks’ backcourt quite shorthanded.
The Mavericks, who fell to 17-10, kept it a game. But when they got within 101-92 midway through the fourth quarter, the Clippers got three-pointers from Harden and Powell and the drama was over.
Powell had 29 points, Harden 24 and Zubac 21 points and 15 rebounds.
Klay Thompson led the Mavericks with 22 points, Spencer Dinwiddie had 19 and P.J. Washington had 14 points and nine rebounds.
“Klay was great. The group was great,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We just ran out of gas. Give the Clippers credit. They were the better team tonight.”
The Mavericks were in the mix until a third quarter in which Zubac got rolling in the paint and the Clippers found a way to stifle the Mavericks at the other end.
“Their pick and roll was good,” Kidd said. “His (Zubac’s) post-ups and his offensive rebounds, that hurt us.
“We couldn’t get any stops there in the third and couldn’t make any shots. There’s no excuse. We suit up the guys who can go. Everybody in that locker room played hard. We just came up short.”
More than an hour before tipoff, Clippers’ coach Ty Lue looked at the Mavericks and said that often a wounded animal “is the most dangerous.”
It’s a line that’s been uttered thousands of times in the NBA and it is believed that Dick Motta, the first coach of the Mavericks, popularized the quote.
On Thursday, it fit the Mavericks perfectly, until reality set in.
The Mavericks had spent the past 40 days doing a lot of traveling and not the kind that happens on the court. With 13 of the 17 games in that stretch on the road. They went to the west coast three times and the east coast twice.
Nobody wanted to use any excuses on this night. But it showed in their shooting, which was 39.5 percent overall and just 23.3 percent from three-point range. They were only 4-of-24 from long range in the last three quarters after going 3-of-6 in the first 12 minutes.
“It’s frustrating when you shoot the ball that poorly from the three, and I was a big culprit of that,” said Thompson, who was 2-of-9 from long range. “But it’s not the end of the world. It’s our first time playing without our best players.
“Looking at the numbers offensively, we struggled. And defensively, actually. So (we didn’t adapt) very well, but it was the first time playing without both our guys. I’m sure it won’t be the last. And we’ll be ready the next time it happens because it’s a completely different style of play, obviously.”
There was some good news on the health front. Naji Marshall had missed five of the last six games and Maxi Kleber had been out for three games, both victims of the bug that has been making the rounds on the Mavericks’ roster for the last month.
Their return was welcomed. But it wasn’t enough against a stout Clippers defense that got tough after allowing 30 first-quarter points.
The Clippers, who improved to 16-12, have tried to reinvent themselves this season with a more defense-oriented style. The acquisition of former Maverick Derrick Jones Jr. was key to making that transition.
Jones signed with the Clippers as a free agent in the summer and he returned from a hamstring injury to start against the Mavericks. He got a nice video tribute on the big screen at AAC during the first timeout of the game, but that was about all the nostalgia for the night.
X: @ESefko
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