The Los Angeles Clippers won their NBA home opener on Thursday, downing the Dallas Mavericks 104-88 in a contest spiced by the contentious off-season contract waffling of center DeAndre Jordan.
Jordan reneged on a verbal agreement to join the Mavericks as a free agent, opting instead to remain with the Clippers.
Prior to tip-off, outspoken Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was dismissive of the Clippers, who have long played second fiddle to the Lakers in Los Angeles, but it was the Clippers who were in control for most of the game against a Mavericks team missing Chandler Parsons, JaVale McGee, Wesley Matthews and Deron Williams.
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Williams suffered a left knee contusion in Wednesday’s 111-95 win over Phoenix, while Matthews, who scored nine points on Wednesday, was left out because Mavericks officials did not want him playing two nights straight on his surgically repaired Achilles tendon.
Blake Griffin scored 26 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, guard Jamal Crawford added 15 points off the bench and Los Angeles led by as many as 28 points in the sometimes prickly contest.
Jordan and the Mavericks’ German star Dirk Nowitzki had a brief altercation late in the first half after the two made contact under the Clippers basket.
Players from both teams traded barbs before technical fouls were issued to Jordan, Griffin and Mavs guard Raymond Felton.
The Mavericks then instituted a “hack-a-Jordan” strategy, fouling him on each of the Clippers’ next three possessions.
He missed five of six attempts, but Los Angeles still led 51-43 at halftime.
“I thought he handled it well,” Griffin said of Jordan’s response to an emotional night. “He was excited for it — but we should be excited for every game.”
“We just calmed down, trusted our offense, executed and got stops defensively, which led to easy baskets on the offensive end,” said Griffin, who made 11 of 17 shots from the floor in only 27 minutes.
“We played better defense, No. 1,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “No. 2, I thought we walked the ball up the floor for most of the first half. The first unit was much better the second time they came on the floor in the last six minutes of the first half. In the second half, both units played at pace instead of walking up the floor after both makes and misses, which was not who we are.”
“It was a tough matchup, but we kept battling,” Nowitzki said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. That was tough, but I thought we hung in there for the first half.”
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