Mavericks Have Winning Equation Against Clippers

The Dallas Mavericks are the NBA’s feel-good team. You can’t help but smile as they run from one end of the court to the other, tossing shots from near and far and winning fans (and games) with their freewheeling style of play.

They are not overburdened with a desire to play sternum-to-sternum defense, which is why they are often discounted as potential champions once the fun and games of the regular season end and the hard work of the playoffs begins.

All that is right and wrong with the Mavericks, minus an injured Michael Finley, was on display Wednesday night during a 114-107 victory over the Clippers before a sellout crowd of 19,595 at Staples Center.

On their plus side, Nick Van Exel scored 21 of the Mavericks’ 36 points in the second quarter on nine-for-11 shooting. Van Exel finished the game with 29 points on 12-for-21 shooting.

On their minus side, the Mavericks could do no better than a 56-52 halftime lead, giving up as many layups and fastbreak baskets as they produced at the other end of the court.

“I think people are fools for doing it,” said Dennis Johnson, Clipper interim coach, when asked why critics have a habit of overlooking the Mavericks when picking title contenders. “When you have guys scoring like Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash and then they bring guys off the bench, they have a multitude of scorers.”

On the other hand....

“Sacramento scored a ton of layups on them,” Johnson said, referring to the Kings’ playoff victory over Dallas last season. “They didn’t stop for threes or 15-footers, they took it to the hole, so maybe Dallas needs to shore that up. [But] when their shooters get on a roll, they can go.”

In the Clippers, the Mavericks had an opponent that could not take advantage of all that was available to them. For instance, down 104-101 with 1:16 remaining, Clipper guard Marko Jaric made two errant passes on as many trips and Nowitzki converted them into a dunk and two free throws.

Nowitzki scored 27 points.

The Mavericks would make 10 consecutive free throws in the final 1:16. They are the league’s best team from the line, making 82.5%, another of their many fine qualities. They made 24 of 27 (88.9%) Wednesday, compared to 15 of 25 (60%) for the Clippers.

With the Clippers trailing, 98-96, Jaric missed two free throws. Lamar Odom missed two more with the Clippers down, 102-98. But the Clippers rebounded his second miss and Eric Piatkowski made a three-pointer, the last of his team-leading 22 points.

“We could have still won this game even with the missed free throws,” said Odom, who had 15 points and eight rebounds in 40 minutes. “We said before the game that how we start the game is how we’ll end it. Tonight, we competed for 48 minutes.”