A Bigger One Just Gets Away

The Clippers took measured strides Sunday afternoon, marching alongside the Dallas Mavericks for most of a mid-January game actually worth watching from start to finish. Oh, and the Clippers also lost for the seventh time in nine games.

A 96-90 defeat before an occasionally raucous crowd of 18,216 at Staples Center was hardly a consolation prize for the Clippers, who desperately need victories rather than congratulatory slaps on the back.

Naturally, sound play beats lousy play every day of the week, but the Clippers were in no mood for anything less than an upset victory over the Mavericks, the NBA’s top team with a 31-5 record. After all, the Clippers are 14-23, still marooned at the bottom of the Pacific Division.

So, while Dallas Coach Don Nelson praised the Clippers for their gritty defensive work as much as their flashy lob passes for highlight-reel dunks, Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry bemoaned another loss -- their third this season to the Mavericks.

“If they just stay with the program and stay with Gentry, they’re going to be a factor in the second half of the season,” Nelson said of the Clippers. “I like their team. I like their aggressiveness. I just think they’re a really good team. We searched and scratched in the second half, but we couldn’t get anything going offensively. Then we found a few wrinkles that got us to the basket. But they guarded us pretty well.”

Gentry enjoyed how the Clippers played, but added, “The only thing that matters now are wins and losses. This game here does us zero good. Yeah, I’m happy with how we played, but the bottom line is it still counts as a loss.”

Of the Mavericks, he added, “That team is the best team in the NBA right now if you look at their record and how they play. I think it’s important for our guys to understand that if we can play with that team and we play with the same kind of intensity and effort, we should be able to play with any team in this league.”

Trouble is, the Clippers continue to play teams they’re looking up at in the standings, starting Wednesday with the Minnesota Timberwolves, continuing Saturday with the Sacramento Kings and Monday with the Lakers.

This figured to be a tough stretch for the Clippers, but their recent slump made it seem even tougher.

Hanging around the Mavericks, wiping out a 13-point deficit with an 18-3 run in the second half before faltering down the stretch, only made this loss harder for Gentry. He stamped his foot on the sideline, bellowed for calls that never came and kept reminding his players to keep pushing against the Mavericks.

Some good came of it, but the Clippers lost Corey Maggette, Michael Olowokandi and Elton Brand to fouls over the final 4:39 and the game soon slipped away.

Maggette had 18 points, Olowokandi had nine points and 10 rebounds and Brand had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Dirk Nowitzki made a three-point basket to give Dallas the lead for good, 87-84. Raef LaFrentz then slammed home Michael Finley’s miss and Steve Nash drove for two more and a 91-84 advantage. Nash had 24 points and Nowitzki had 23.

Instead of explaining how they bungled two second-half leads in two trips to Staples Center this season, the Mavericks could call Sunday’s victory a nice tuneup for Wednesday’s visit to Sacramento to face the Kings.

Of course, the Mavericks still have to live down squandering a 30-point lead in a Dec. 6 loss to the Lakers. But with each passing game (and victory), they move toward establishing themselves as something more significant than that team with that silly young fellow who owns them (Mark Cuban) and those two dudes who need haircuts (Nowitzki and Nash).

Thumping the Kings, who knocked off the Mavericks in the conference semifinals last spring, would help reinforce Dallas’ credibility. But fending off the Clippers down the stretch certainly didn’t hurt.

“They made plays when it was time to and we didn’t,” said Clipper guard Keyon Dooling, who had 15 points in 19 minutes. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game, but we came up short. Dallas is the best team in the league.”