The Mavericks are 2-4 following Sunday's frustrating loss to the previously winless Los Angeles Clippers -- not how the start of the Rick Carlisle era was supposed to go. Implementing a running style to take advantage of Jason Kidd, the Mavs have been unable to go up-tempo consistently, and the blame is falling on their leaky defense.
"Yeah, we've had some setbacks," Nowitzki said. "But we knew it was not going to be easy to throw everything out the window and start completely new defensively, new calls offensively. It's going to take some time." Up next is a major test against the other L.A. club, the one with Kobe Bryant and the one many expect to repeat as Western Conference champion. The Lakers rank near the top of the league in scoring, while the Mavs have allowed four of six opponents to reach 100 points.
The Clippers hadn't shot 40 percent collectively through the first four games yet managed 48.7 percent against the Mavs.
"We're giving up a lot of points, so I don't know where we stand defensively," Kidd said. "When you give up that many points, it's hard to win."
CLIPPERS 103, MAVERICKS 92: Dirk Nowitzki scored 33 points, 20 more than the Mavericks' next highest scorer, as they lost their second consecutive game and their third in the last four games. Josh Howard missed the game with a sprained right wrist, and no one stepped up to replace his 17 points a game. Jason Terry made 3 of 15 shots for eight points, and Gerald Green had 13. Defense is the real horror show for the Mavs. They allowed the Clippers to shoot 48.7 percent, including 9-of-20 from 3-point range.
