Doncic is fine after the fall, but the Mavs lost to the Clippers, 113-101

LOS ANGELES — The Dallas Mavericks suffered a major panic when Luka Doncic fell from an expensive net. a number of seats at the Crypto.com Arena and fell onto a concrete walkway during the second half of Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Although Doncic was fine after the fall, unfortunately the Mavs couldn’t outlive the Clippers.

Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points and Norman Powell added 27 as the Clippers ended their six-game losing streak with a 113–101 win over the Mavs. Leonard also hit a big offensive rebound and a grueling three-pointer that floored the Mavs and reduced their record to 23-19 early Thursday in the same building against the Los Angeles Lakers.

All is well behind the Mavs after Doncic tripped, then flew over the front row seats in the fourth quarter and landed on the concrete walkway. This caused the Mavs staff to run in Doncic’s direction to make sure the fifth-year superstar point guard was okay.

“I’m fine,” Doncic said. “I lost my balance there, so I went into the stands.”

It was the night the Mavs spent the night off balance, unable to apply enough force at both ends of the court to make up for what the Clippers were setting. The Clippers were in the lead from wire to wire and were able to extend their record to 22-21.

After Leonard’s well-timed shots, the Clippers led 69-47 at halftime as the Mavs had all sorts of problems trying to hit the ball into the basket while the Clippers doubled down on Doncic and put the ball in the hands of his teammates.

“Our energy and effort (wasn’t there) in that first half,” said coach Jason Kidd. “I thought in the second half we could act better (and) understand that we saw it for most of the season when the teams were going to double up and take the ball out of Luca’s hands.

“It’s just that the intervals weren’t very good in the first half. So we talked about it at half-time, made adjustments and started converting where the guys knew where to go, and then started making shots. But when we don’t score, it affects our defense a lot. You saw it in the first half.”

Despite a slow start, the Mavs mustered enough energy to crawl to 104–96 with 2:50 left on a three-pointer from Doncic. Leonard then put in the biggest play of the game when he intercepted a missed three-pointer from Marcus Morris Sr. and shot from downtown to extend the Clippers’ lead to 107–96 with just over two minutes left.

“It was great,” Kidd said, describing Leonard’s powerful offensive rebound and ball. “To get a miss[Morris’ three-pointer]we had to box, but we were small.

“For most of the night we were small with five guards trying to play big. (We) were just trying to get rebounds or lost balls. It was a big miss and Kawai was in the right place at the right time and then hit the top three.”

The Mavs were small because center Dwight Powell left the game for good in the first half after bruising his right hip. Dallas was already without center Maxi Kleber (torn right hamstring), forward Dorian Finney-Smith (right adductor sprain), and defenseman Josh Green (right elbow sprain).

So the injuries were a test of depth for the Mavs, especially that night when the Clippers outscored them on second chance points, 20-6.

The Mavs were beside themselveslimited, 54-42 overall, and Doncic said there was no defensive effort in the first half.

“We played poorly in the first half. “We played well in the second half, but not in the first.

“They had nine offensive rebounds in the first half. It’s hard to win when you’re beaten like that.”

Kidd added that: “We need to improve the details of the game plan.”

Doncic, who had 43 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, hit a three-pointer as the Mavs were again within eight points (107–99) of the Clippers with two minutes left. But Leonard was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws to extend the Clippers’ lead to 11 points (110–99) with 1:40 left.

“We’re just running out of bodies,” Kidd said. “We have (newcomer Jayden) Hardy, we have Reggie (Bullock). We play with everyone we can. On top of that, we’re increasing everyone else’s minutes.

“Spencer (Dinwiddie) plays 40 minutes and scores 13 points, LD will always play 40 minutes until we get better. But if you look at the protocols of our opening matches, you will see that they are high.”

That night, most of the Mavs’ offense came from Doncic, who only had 12 points, two rebounds, and two assists at halftime, primarily because the Clippers doubled him almost every time he touched a basketball. However, Doncic had 31 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the second half.

The Mavs finished the game scoring 43.5% from the field (30 of 69) and 31.6% from downtown (12 of 38). Meanwhile, the Clippers made 45.3% of shots (39 of 86) and 38.7% of threes (12 of 31).

Twitter: @DwainPrice