Manning, Clippers Flatten Dallas : Pro basketball: The forward scores a season-high 31 points to lead L.A. to a 130-112 victory over Mavericks.

The night before, Danny Manning spent most of his time in front of the bench, lying on his stomach to rest his sore lower back, hoping he wouldn’t get run over if a play came his way.

Wednesday night, 24 hours after a loss at Houston, Manning was on the offensive, and the Dallas Mavericks were the victims. Manning scored a season-high 31 points on 14-for-19 shooting to lead the Clippers to a 130-112 victory at Reunion Arena.

On the previous night, Manning scored a season-low 14 points.

In a bid for his first all-star appearance, Manning has topped 20 points in eight of his last nine games, averaging 23 in that stretch and 22.7 overall while shooting 52.8% for the season. He is also contributing 6.7 rebounds per game.

“I pride myself on taking good shots,” Manning said. “That’s important to me. I feel that if I take good shots, I’m a good enough shooter that I will make a high percentage of them.”

His spark came from the strangest of places, from a Maverick who played 12 minutes and contributed only three points. When Randy White fouled Mark Jackson midway through the second quarter and then stepped over the fallen Jackson in an apparent act of intimidation, Manning stepped in to defend his teammate. A scrum ensued, though nothing serious developed.

Nothing, that is, besides Manning’s shooting touch.

“I think it kind of warmed me up, so to say,” he said, smiling.

He had only two points the rest of the quarter, but was six for seven for 14 points in the third quarter. The Clippers? They went from a five-point lead early in the second half, 63-58, to a 20-point cushion heading into the final period, 97-77.

The game was over, but there was still work to be done. Stanley Roberts hadn’t gotten close to six fouls yet.

And, as Roberts would attest, he needed the work after averaging less than 10 minutes in his previous three games. Roberts played 24 minutes against the Mavericks, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds, despite a chest cold that hindered him so much he got sick twice in the arena.

Coach Larry Brown wouldn’t rate it Roberts’ best showing, but there was no disputing that the minutes were six more than his season high.

“Detroit, in overtime, was by far his best,” Brown said. “But this was his longest, and most encouraging.”

Said Roberts, noting that part of the Clippers’ plan was to get him involved early in the offense: “He (Brown) wanted to go to me a little bit more, maybe to see how I would react. I think that this will help coach build confidence in me.”

The Mavericks lost their fourth in a row and dropped to 1-7 for the first time since starting 1-13 in 1981-82. They got a team-high 22 points from reserve Sean Rooks, and Derek Harper added 20.

Clipper Notes

Mark Jackson had nine assists in the first quarter to tie the Clipper mark for most in a period, set originally by Norm Nixon on March 3, 1986. Jackson finished with 14 while not committing any turnovers. . . . Roberts thought he would be a Maverick now. But the Orlando Magic matched his five-year, $15.16-million offer sheet as a restricted free agent in the summer, then later traded him to the Clippers. “It is weird,” Roberts said of playing in Dallas, a place he thought not too long ago would be home. “But I’ve still got to go out and play against them. I’m sorry it did not work out here.”