Clippers Get Mavericks, Another Winless Team, Off Mark

Car-battery endorsements should be rolling in soon for the Clippers, the best jump starters in the NBA.

For the second consecutive night, they provided a cure for an 0-2 team. First, there was Golden State and now Dallas, and both were recharged in a major way.

From winless to win-by-plenty, the Mavericks tinkered with the Clippers Wednesday night in similar fashion as Golden State did 24 hours earlier, using a second-half blowout to win, 123-99.

The Sports Arena crowd of 7,021 booed the Clippers into the huddle at the end of the third quarter and made themselves scarce in the fourth. The outcome had long been decided by then, thanks to the Mavericks’ overhaul of a Clipper defense that went from allowing Houston 88 points in Game 1 to an average of 120.5 in the next two outings.

Now it’s up to Don Casey to play mechanic. The Clipper coach and his staff will study game films today in hopes of finding the problems, numerous as they may be.

“To me,” Casey said, “we have to search out the offense.”

And the defense.

“In order to win with the players we have, we have to play much better defense,” forward Ken Norman said.

And then there’s the attitude.

Concerned that his team may get down on itself too quickly, Casey held one of the longest postgame meetings of his tenure. The 15-minute talk dealt more with staying confident than shooting or rebounding.

“The problem is, when you’re in a difficult situation and you start to experience some difficulty again, I think your subconscious goes into past haunts,” Casey said. “That’s what we’re trying to eliminate.”

“We’re a young team and we can’t let ourselves get down,” Joe Wolf said.

The Clippers made pregame changes to try to head off some of the problems. Tuesday night at Sacramento, the Mavericks’ Roy Tarpley had 22 rebounds and five blocked shots, and James Donaldson, bothered by tendinitis in his left knee after coming back much sooner than expected from surgery on his right knee, had 19 points and 14 rebounds.

That was enough for Casey, who benched Michael Young, coming off a 24-point, 14-rebound showing at Golden State. Bigger backup center Ken Bannister moved into the starting front line with Wolf and Norman.

Wolf contested 7-foot-2, 275-pound Donaldson, giving away four inches and 45 pounds in the process. But Wolf made it through the first quarter without foul trouble, news in itself this season, and also held his own as the Mavericks constantly posted up Donaldson.

The Mavericks, off to the first 0-2 start in the 10-year team history, took a 55-46 lead by halftime, closing the first half with a 16-6 run in the final 4:34. Dallas made seven of 10 shots in that span and finished the first two quarters at a resounding 65.7%.

The Clippers, who shot 40% from the field in Tuesday’s 24-point loss to Golden State, were at 42.9% against Dallas. Norman, however, was seven of 11 for 18 points, the first-half high for both teams.

Dallas’ lead stretched early in the second half. The Mavericks, who shot 60% for the night, used a 6-2 surge at the start of the third quarter to lead by 13, 61-48.

When the cushion extended to 77-59 with 6:49 to play in the quarter, Casey was forced to call his second timeout of the half. The deficit was 18 . . . and growing.

It increased to 27 by the end of the third quarter, 96-69. The Clippers had been outscored, 41-23, in 12 minutes.

Norman finished with a game-high 27 points, and Young added 18. Tarpley had 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead Dallas, with Donaldson, a former Clipper, and Adrian Dantley scoring 18 each.

Clipper Notes

Looking at his expected return from knee surgery as a fresh start, Danny Manning might go so far as to change from uniform No. 25, which he has worn since high school. He’s bounced the idea of No. 4 or 5, which have no special significance, off some people with mixed reactions. “It would be different,” Manning said. “It would freak out a lot of people. I talked to some friends about it and they say I’m 25--25 for life. But I think it would be a nice change.” Manning, out since tearing a knee ligament Jan. 4, has been given approval by Dr. Stephen Lombardo to resume full practices Nov. 15, but the final decision for a return will come from Manning himself. “I don’t want to get too excited about it,” he said. “I don’t want to get a letdown if something goes wrong. If Nov. 15 comes and I feel fine, I’ll be ready to go and will give it a try.