Clippers ease past Mavs 114-99 in matchup of 5-win streaks
DALLAS — Paul George and Kawhi Leonard gave the young European duo from the Dallas Mavericks the best look yet at life among the elite in the Western Conference.
George scored 17 of his 26 points in the first quarter, Leonard finished with 28 and the Los Angeles Clippers took control early in a meeting of teams with matching five-game winning streaks, beating the Mavericks 11499 on Tuesday night.
The Clippers used several defenders to end Luka Doncic’s franchise-record streak of four games with at least 30 points and 10 assists, knocking the 20-yearold phenom to the floor early on a 4-of-14 shooting night. Doncic had 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Kristaps Porzingis was 4 of 13, the 7-foot3 Latvian combining with the Rookie of the Year from Slovenia to go 8 of 27 compared to 19 of 42 for the LA stars. George added a career-high six steals to help hold the Mavericks under 100 points for the first time this season.
“They’re looking to win a championship; they played like it was a playoff game,” said Porzingis, who hit a 28footer 22 seconds into the game and another 3-pointer from the logo at center court just before halftime but finished 3 of 8 from long range. He had 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“They played aggressively and they showed us that we have to learn how to play these games. We have to bring that same intensity.”
Patrick Beverley got in foul trouble as one of the defenders assigned to Doncic, who had to settle for doing most of his damage on free throws, making 14 of 16.
Beverley getting his fourth foul early in the second half just brought back Lou Williams sooner. The highscoring reserve finished with 21 points, going 4 of 7 on 3s while Doncic missed all seven of his deep tries against the LA defense.
The Mavericks had taken the Southwest Division lead with a win at Houston for their fifth straight victory, and weren’t too far removed from a loss to LeBron James and the Lakers that required a buzzer-beating 3 to force overtime in Dallas.