Mavs roll Clippers to grab 1st victory
LA saw its largest halftime deficit of the shot-clock era
Luka Doncic scored 24 points and the Mavericks led by a NBA-record 50 points at halftime in a 124-73 rout of the Clippers on Sunday to earn their first win of the season.
Josh Richardson added 21 points and Tim Hardaway Jr. had 18 points for the Mavs, who kept up their dominance in the second half, too.
“There’s no huge secret,” Richardson said. “We just got up and played well. We played with a sense of urgency.”
The Clippers trailed 77-27 at halftime, with their 50-point deficit being the largest at the break in the shot-clock era, which began in 1954-55.
Paul George led the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers with 15 points before sitting out the second half. Serge Ibaka added 13 points and nine rebounds over three quarters of the team’s first loss. The Clippers began with victories over the defending NBA champion Lakers and Denver.
Los Angeles got outrebounded 32-16, had just three assists, and missed 18 of 19 3-pointers in the first half. George was the only Clipper in double figures with 13 after missing all six of his 3-point attempts.
Doncic had 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the first half. He scored as many points (13) as the Clippers in the first quarter. The Mavs scored nearly every time down the court while forcing the Clippers into 9 of 37 field-goal shooting.
“Everything was clicking on all cylinders,” said Hardaway Jr., adding that the team didn’t realize how big the lead was until they were in the locker room at halftime.
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle emphasized staying consistent in the second half.
“The challenge is to maintain that level of competitiveness,” he said. “Our guys established a standard for collective toughness and will that we need to find a way to maintain.”
The Clippers opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run — their biggest spurt of the game — to get within 40 points. The Mavs got right back to putting the hammer down. They connected on four consecutive 3-pointers — three by Hardaway Jr. — to restore their lead to 50. They were ahead 104-57 going into the fourth.
Doncic just missed a triple-double, finishing with nine rebounds and eight assists. He has scored 83 points in his first three games of the season, the first two of which were losses.
“We showed who we are. People judge us like first two games of season, it’s a long season,” Doncic said. “We got to keep going like that. We got to play defense.”
The fourth quarter belonged to the teams’ reserves, although the Clippers kept Luke Kennard, who started in place of Leonard, in the rotation for a bit. The Mavs’ bench was on its feet and whipping towels in the air to celebrate Josh Green’s one-handed fastbreak dunk that extended their lead to 53 points.
Former Clipper Boban Marjanovic polished off a 12-0 run with a jumper that pushed the Mavs’ lead to 120-63, their largest of the game.
“We weren’t letting each other look up at the score,” Mavs forward James Johnson said.
The Mavs shot 49% from the field, made 14 3-pointers and outrebounded the Clippers 54-36 in the game. Los Angeles had 13 assists after notching 32 against Denver on Christmas. The Clippers shot 26 of 76 from the floor and made just 4 of 33 3-pointers.
Leonard sat out after needing eight stitches in his mouth after accidentally getting elbowed by the 7-foot Ibaka going for a rebound in Friday’s win at Denver. He watched the debacle from the bench.
Warriors suffer big blow: Warriors center Marquese Chriss suffered a broken right leg during Saturday’s practice in Chicago and will miss a significant part of the season, a league source told the Bay Area News Group. A more complete timeline for his return will be determined after Chriss, 23, undergoes surgery in the coming days.
In addition to fracturing his right fibula, Chriss also suffered a high ankle sprain, said the source, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to discuss medical information.