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

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

Quentin Grimes took the lead in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of his 20 points on 4 of 4 shooting from the field, including a wild attempt on an attempted lob that was deflected into the bucket by a Clippers defender, bringing the Mavs to 92 points -77 just under eight minutes before the end of the game. As the fourth quarter wore on, Norman Powell and Kevin Porter Jr. came into their own from 3-point range, but the Mavs had enough combined strength down the stretch to fend off the comeback attempt.

Here are three hurdles the Mavs had to overcome to maintain the victory.

Early shooting issues from Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson

The Mavericks, for the second straight game, would need everything Irving and Thompson could give them without Luka Dončić, who was out with a heel injury. However, the duo combined to shoot just 1 of 9 from the floor in the first quarter. The stingy Clipper defense got in the way of the Mavs’ shooters and caused havoc in the first quarter before Thompson scored the first five points of the second quarter with a corner 3-pointer and a nifty scooping drive that tied the score at 32 -32 increased. 25 and forced an LA timeout with 9:36 left in the first half.

Dallas used that small wave of momentum to carry them through the dirt of the first half to a 54-40 lead at the break. Irving and Thompson woke up a bit and scored three points on consecutive possessions with less than a minute left in the first half to extend 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 in the first half, while Irving and Thompson looked for the shot. The Mavs also played some defense themselves, holding the Clipper 3-point shooters to just 3 of 19 and forcing 11 LA turnovers in the first two quarters.

Irving got some momentum going in the third quarter and finished with 15 points on 6 of 25 shooting and six assists in the win. Klay Thompson added 16 points after shooting 4 of 6 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 their recent tendency toward sloppiness by turning the ball over just 11 times in the win over the Clippers. Dallas fell a bit behind in that regard in the third quarter, coughing up the ball four times in frame after giving it away just five times in the first half. But the Mavs remained in control against one of the NBA’s best defenses. They never let turnovers lead to a big Clipper scoring streak.

The Mavs started the year averaging about 12 turnovers per game, one of the club’s best numbers through the first 12 games of the season. That total approached 17 as the Mavericks earned victories in 11 of their next 12 games. Saturday’s 11 turnovers were the fewest in a game for the Mavs. They committed 10 turnovers in a 122-120 loss to the Denver Nuggets on November 10th.

There was a stretch of more than nine minutes, stretching from the end of the third minute to the first six minutes or so of the fourth, in which the Mavericks didn’t turn the ball over at all. The Mavs defeated the Clippers 14:13 through opponents’ turnovers and won.

The Ivica-Zubac puzzle

Zubac hasn’t been a good match for the Mavericks’ post tandem of Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in recent meetings. Lively was active enough on both ends of the court to disrupt Zubac in Saturday’s win, especially in the first half. Lively collected seven points, six boards and two steals before halftime. Zubac fell behind by seven straight points early in the third period, cutting the Mavs’ lead to seven points with just under seven minutes left in the third period. The contributions of Lively, Gafford and even a bit of courage from Maxi Kleber, who was deployed at times as a kind of floating free safety in deep defense against Zubac, won’t really jump out at you in the pit stand, but their collective activity inside was important , as the outside shootings came and went for Dallas.

Gafford scored on a 3-point play before a rebound with 3:30 left in the third to put Dallas back in front by 11 points, 70-59 at that point. It was cool to hear his primal screams with each of those throws as Gafford was mic’d in the win against the Clippers. He finished the game with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor, along with six boards and two blocked shots to secure 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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