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LOS ANGELES — Who’d have ever thought this would be the Dallas Mavericks’ new home away from home?
A torturous haunted house to them for so long, Staples Center was the perfect venue to get their season jump-started as the Mavericks completed a franchise-first LA sweep by outlasting the Clippers 93-84 on Saturday night. It was Halloween, so naturally the finish got scary. The Mavericks led by nine going into the fourth quarter, but the Clippers roared back to make it 82-82 with under six minutes to go. Jason Terry uncorked a 3-pointer and a layup to put the Mavericks up 87-84 with under three minutes left. After two Clippers misses, Erick Dampier got loose for a dunk and the Mavericks forced a shot-clock violation. They then got two offensive rebounds and the Clippers could do nothing to make a comeback.Dirk Nowitzki again led the Mavericks with 24 points; Shawn Marion and Terry added 16 each; and Dampier had a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds).Chris Kaman had a career-high 27 points for the Clippers, but he was their only consistent threat. Even before the game started, the Mavericks knew getting the sweep would not be easy. It was just last year that the Mavericks played the 0-6 Clippers and became their first victim of the season. "This is a tough place to play," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "If you look at our record here the last few years, it’s been tough." And anytime the Mavericks have played two in a row at LA, the results have been mostly pathetic. This was their ninth trip to LA during which they played the Lakers and Clippers back to back. They had been swept five times and split three trips. They had never swept LA until now.Both teams were stuck on 55 through two quarters and it was appropriate given the way they finished the first half. Let’s just say they matched each other meltdown for meltdown.Dallas had two turnovers in the final 15 seconds of the half leading to a Baron Davis layup and a Kaman three-point play. Clippers guard Sebastian Telfair fouled Terry while he was shooting a 3-pointer. Telfair then griped too much about the call and picked up a technical. The four free throws with 0.9 showing on the clock allowed the Mavericks to tie the score. That allowed them to take a bit of momentum into the second half and it wasn’t long before the Mavericks charged ahead 74-62 with Dampier having his second big third quarter in as many nights and everybody else contributing, too.Gooden sits Because of a muscle strain near his right rib cage, Drew Gooden sat out Saturday’s game. He said he’s planning on getting an MRI when the team gets back to Dallas today. Gooden got hurt early in the fourth quarter when Lakers’ forward Josh Powell and he were battling for position.Go to the zoneThe Mavericks found the zone in their self-reviving win over the Lakers.OK, maybe not The Zone, but certainly A Zone — as in zone defense.When Kobe Bryant looked like he was going to take over the fourth quarter and make the Mavericks sweat after owning a 22-point lead, Rick Carlisle went to the zone with success.Not bad considering it’s the first time they’ve used it this season spanning seven exhibitions and the season opener."This is going to be the key to our success, if we’re persistent, particularly at the defensive end," Carlisle said. "And our guys did a nice job playing the zone in the second half. We’d worked on it but hadn’t used it."Give them a lot of credit because that slowed them down a little after Kobe drew three fouls on us in about 12 seconds to start the fourth."
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