The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night 113-97

The Dallas Mavericks (18-10) spread the wealth on offense and played some of the best defense the team has had all season in a 113-97 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers (16-13) on Saturday night at the American Airlines Center.

In Luka Dončić’s second game sidelined with a heel contusion, eight Mavericks scored in double figures again, the 14th time Dallas has put at least six in double figures through 28 games this season. The Mavs have now won 13 of those 14 games.

Quentin Grimes took over in the fourth quarter and scored 14 of his 20 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, including a wild shot on an attempted lob that was deflected by a Clippers defender in the bucket to put the Mavs up by 92 -77 with just under eight minutes left. Norman Powell and Kevin Porter Jr. got hot from 3-point range as the fourth quarter progressed, but the Mavs had enough collective effort in the tank down the stretch to hold off the comeback attempt.

Here are three hurdles the Mavs would have to jump over to preserve the win.

Early shooting issues from Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson

The Mavericks would need everything Irving and Thompson could give them for the second straight game without Luka Dončić, who was out with a heel injury. The duo combined to shoot just 1-of-9 from the floor in the first quarter. The stingy Clipper defense got a hand in the face of the Mavs’ shooters and messed around in the first quarter before Thompson scored the first five points of the second on a corner 3-pointer and a smart scooping drive that made it 32 – 25 and forced an LA timeout with 9:36 left in the first half.

Dallas rode that small wave of momentum to carry them through the first half to a 54-40 halftime lead. Irving and Thompson woke up a bit and hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions with under a minute left in the first half to extend the Dallas lead to 52-38. Both Spencer Dinwiddie (10 points, four assists, two steals) and Naji Marshall (seven points, three rebounds) provided sparks for the Mavs along the way in the first half as Irving and Thompson searched for the shooting. The Mavs also played some of their own defense, holding the Clippers’ 3-point shooting to just 3-of-19 and forcing 11 LA turnovers in the first two quarters.

Irving got going a bit in the third quarter and finished with 15 points on 6-of-25 shooting to go along with six assists in the win. Klay Thompson added 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc after going 4-for-4 from the field in the second quarter. Thompson also had four steals in the win.

The latest turnover error

Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images

The Mavs were strong with the ball and overcame a recent trend of carelessness by turning the ball over just 11 times in the win over the Clippers. Dallas slipped back a bit on that front in the third quarter, coughing up the ball four times in the frame after giving it away just five times in the first half. But the Mavs kept things under control against one of the best defenses in the NBA. They never let turnovers lead to a big Clipper scoring run.

The Mavs started the year averaging about 12 turnovers per game, one of the best marks in the association through the first 12 games of the season. The total crept closer to 17 as the Mavericks picked up wins in 11 of their next 12 games. Saturday’s 11 turnovers were the fewest in a game for the Mavs, who turned it over 10 times in a 122-120 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Nov. 10.

There was a stretch of more than nine minutes spanning from the end of the third to the first six minutes of the fourth where the Mavericks didn’t turn the ball over at all. The Mavs edged the Clippers 14-13 in turnovers in the win.

The Ivica Zubac Riddle

Zubac has not been a good matchup for the Mavericks’ post tandem of Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in recent matchups. Lively was active enough on both ends of the court to bother Zubac in Saturday’s win, especially in the first half. Lively tallied seven points, six boards and two steals before the break. Zubac went down early in the third on seven straight points to cut the Mavs’ lead to seven points with just under seven minutes left in the third. The contributions of Lively, Gafford and even a little bit of grit from Maxi Kleber, used as a sort of floating free safety at times in the defense down to Zubac, won’t really jump out at you on the box, but their collective activity inside was important as outside shooting came and went for Dallas.

Gafford scored on a 3-point play before getting a putback home with 3:30 left in the third to put Dallas back in front by 11, up 70-59 at the time. It was cool to hear his original screams on each of those buckets when Gafford was on the mic for the win against the Clippers. He finished with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor to go along with six boards and two blocked shots in the win.

Zubac scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed 15 rebounds in 34 minutes against the Mavs on Saturday.

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