Jason Kidd helps Dallas foil Clippers’ upset bid

DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki was ejected. A 16-point lead had dissolved into a four-point deficit. And that recent 13-game winning streak was looking like something that happened a long, long time ago.

But the Dallas Mavericks still had a couple of things going for them. It was Jason Kidd’s birthday, and they were playing the Clippers.

Kidd scored a season-high 26 points, most of it coming during a game-breaking spurt at the start of the fourth quarter that sent the Mavericks to a 106-96 victory over the Clippers on Tuesday night.

The Clippers lost for the 10th time in 11 games, and for the 11 straight time on the road, despite a season-best performance by Drew Gooden against his former team. Gooden, who started the season with Dallas and was traded to Washington in February, had season highs of 26 points and 20 rebounds.

“I still feel like they’re family,” Gooden said. “This game meant a lot to me.”

Chris Kaman added 22 points and nine rebounds, Rasual Butler and Eric Gordon each scored 16 points and Baron Davis had 11, but the Clippers got only five points from their bench. Four reserves went a combined two for 10.

“I was disappointed that our bench didn’t help us,” interim Coach Kim Hughes said. “I think if our bench would have performed we would have won the game.”

Kidd, though was determined not to let that happen on the day he turned 37.

Since their long winning streak, the Mavericks had lost three of four, and it didn’t look good for them Monday when Nowitzki, their All-Star forward, was tossed for arguing a foul called against him with 9:16 left in the third quarter.

But Kidd had 13 points, three assists and a steal to fuel a decisive 22-3 run early in the fourth quarter.

“Since Dirk was gone, I thought I would play Dirk today,” said Kidd, who made 10 of 21 shots, including six of 11 three-point attempts. “I had some great looks early on that went in and out. Earlier in my career, I would’ve stopped shooting because I missed a couple. But I thought the team needed some scoring so I stepped up.”