The Dallas Mavericks (23-48) turned what looked like a third-quarter collapse at American Airlines Center on Saturday, into yet another clutch game down the stretch, and ultimately, an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers (35-36). The Mavericks had no answer for the duo of Kahwi Leonard (34 points) and Darius Garland (41 points) in the 138-131 loss. The Clippers’ duo combined for 75 points on 27-of-46 shooting in the win.
Dallas hit 12 of the team’s first 20 field goal attempts to start the game,
including four straight makes from the bench unit by Marvin Bagley III and Klay Thompson late in the first. Everyone was involved in the offense as the Mavs jumped out to a 42-32 lead after one quarter. Thompson scored 12 points in the first on 4-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. His early heater buoyed the Mavs as the defense began to give up a few easy Clipper drives to the rim.
The Clippers quickly cut that lead to one early in the second by scoring 10 of the quarter’s first 11 points. Cooper Flagg blocked his second shot of the game with just under nine minutes to play in the first half on a drive by Kris Dunn, which led to a 3-pointer from the left corner by Khris Middleton to put Dallas up 48-42. Flagg then followed up his own miss as part of a quick 9-0 Mavs run two possessions later to bring Dallas’ lead back up to double digits with 7:45 left in the second.
Dallas stemmed the tide on every run made by LA in the first half and came away with a 72-63 lead at the break. It was the Mavericks’ fourth-highest scoring half of the 2025-26 season.
Los Angeles stormed out of halftime on a 13-3 run to open the third, taking a 76-75 lead on John Collins’ drive through the teeth of the Mavs’ defense with 8:55 left in the frame to force a timeout from Dallas head coach Jason Kidd. It came one possession after Garland’s fifth 3-pointer of the game.
Naji Marshall’s attacking baseline drive see-sawed the Mavericks back in front on the first possession out of the timeout, but Garland found Leonard open for a 3-pointer on the other end to put the Clippers back in front. Leonard extended the Clippers’ third-quarter run to 24-5 with two more 3-balls on the next two possessions, and all of a sudden the Mavs were staring an 87-77 deficit in the face. Leonard scored 11 points in a row as part of the run before being subbed out midway through the third.
The Mavericks battled back, though, behind P.J. Washington and Naji Marshall, to cut the LA lead to one, 100-99, heading to the fourth quarter.
Coopering his Flagg
Flagg appears to have worked his way right back into front-runner status in the NBA’s Rookie of the Year race alongside his old Duke roommate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets. Knueppel is in the midst of one of the best 3-point shooting rookie seasons (43.7%) in NBA history. But Flagg is at very least keeping space.
The 3-point shooting and the fact that Charlotte has worked its way into the Eastern Conference play-in race in his rookie year may give Knueppel a slight edge late in the season, but Flagg is so impressive with his presence on both ends of the floor and scores at a slightly higher clip than Knueppel entering play on Saturday.
He scored 15 points, grabbed four rebounds and blocked three shots in the first half against the Clippers on Saturday.
He tied his season- and career-high mark of four blocked shots early in the fourth on Saturday, swatting Dunn’s 3-point attempt late in the shot clock before the quarter was a minute old. Later in the fourth, he swatted his fifth of the game, this time on a drive by Leonard with the Clippers nursing a two-point lead late.
Flagg had a shot to win the game after Leonard tied the game on a driving buckets with 23 seconds left to play, but his pull-up jumper drew the back iron and Washington’s second-chance jumper at the last second was still in his hand as the clock struck zero.
Flagg scored just three points in the second half and overtime period combined in the loss, finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds, six assists and five blocked shots. If there is one thing setting Flagg back in the race to the Rookie of the Year award, it’s his tendency to go absent for long stretches of some games, like he did on Saturday.
Klay and P.J. have found something
Thompson and Washington were the two other Mavs’ who reached double-figure scoring at the half. Klay scored 12 on 4-of-5 shooting in the first half after missing his only attempt from the field in the second quarter. He came into Saturday riding a 34-of-81 (42.1%) 3-point shooting stretch in his last 10 games.
Washington has also been much better for the Mavericks in February and March after a bad stretch in January. He came in riding a three-game streak of 18 or more points and has averaged better than 14 per game over the last month-plus.
It’s just a shame their increased contribution is going toward a lost cause. It’s also a shame that the Mavericks’ offense fell off the face of a cliff to start the third quarter.
These guys could have been helping a contender after the trade deadline in exchange for some much-needed assets, but their production means very little in Dallas as Sillly Season begins to wind down. Washington finished with 21 points and six boards in the loss, while the Clippers’ defense hounded Thompson the rest of the way along the perimeter, limiting his production the rest of the way.
Third-quarter swings
Dallas scored just eight points in the first 7:14 of the third quarter and shot just 2-of-13 from the floor out of halftime. Washington finally hit his third 3-pointer of the game on Flagg’s fourth assist of the game to pull the Mavericks to within 89-85 with four minutes and change left in the third, and Flagg found Washington for a 3-point play on a cutting basket the next time down to cut the LA lead to one.
As the Clippers’ defense chased Thompson relentlessly after his 4-for-4 shooting performance in the first quarter, Klay found Bagley rolling to the hoop with 2:30 to play in the third to give Dallas back the lead, 93-92. Naji Marshall was really crafty for the Mavericks in the lane to end the third quarter as the lead changed hands seven times in the last five four minutes of the frame. Marshall and Clippers’ forward Isaiah Jackson were whistled for double technicals with 40 seconds left in the third after some extracurriculars following a late foul call on Jackson.
Clutch time = Naji time
The Mavs trailed 113-111 with five minutes left in the game after a pair of free throws by Max Christie, who had a rough shooting night for the Mavs. That’s when Garland blew past the entire Mavs’ defense for two of his 33 points to put Los Angeles up 115-111. Just a minute later, he stepped back along the right sideline for his seventh 3-pointer of the game to put the Clippers up 118-114.
Two free throws from Marshall inched the Mavericks back to within 120-118 with 1:10 remaining, and Marshall tied the game with 33 seconds left on a put-back after Washington missed a corner 3-ball seconds earlier. Marshall stripped Garland of the ball the next time down and dished the ball to Washington in a running lane behind him to give the Mavericks back the lead, 122-120, with 23 seconds to play.
Leonard drove through the teeth of the Dallas defense on the Clippers’ final possession of regulation and scored on a play where it looked like he could have been called for a traveling violation to send the game into overtime. Marshall finished with 28 points in the loss.
Overtime letdown
The Mavericks landed the first punch in the five-minute overtime period on Nembhard’s drive to put him at 11 points for the game. Derrick Jones Jr. answered with a 3-pointer on the other end, and Garland made another the next time down to extend the Clippers’ lead to 128-124.
Jones Jr. hit his second 3-ball of the overtime period as part of LA’s 11-0 run after Nembhard’s opening hoop and forced Kidd to take a timeout to regroup. But the damage was done with the Clippers leading 133-124. Los Angeles made its first four shots in overtime and outlasted the Mavericks in the last two minutes.
