The Dallas Mavericks (5-15) remain in Los Angeles Saturday to take on the Clippers (5-14). Both teams are coming off close losses; Dallas fell to the Lakers on Friday night, 129-119 and the Clippers couldn’t pull one out against the Grizzlies at home despite 39 points from Kawhi Leonard, losing 112-107.
Roughly a quarter of the way through the season, both the Clippers and Mavericks have been wildly disappointing relative to expectations. We know the deal with Dallas: they don’t have playmaking off the dribble and their vaunted big men group can’t stay healthy. They don’t have enough shooting either. The Clippers came into the season with sky-high expectations. They closed last year well and made roster improvements in the offseason. But it turns out having an incredibly old team in aggregate is risky and they’ve looked slow and disinterested. They did, however, beat the Mavericks earlier in the month in a thrilling double overtime game.
Here’s some things to think about before tonight’s late start (9:00 pm).
Who is actually going to play?
This is really a question about the availability of two of the NBA’s premier guys who don’t suit up enough: Anthony Davis and Kawhi Leonard. It feels a safe bet to assume Davis won’t play. His return Friday night was his first game in nearly a month following a calf strain and perhaps some conditioning. He looked fine, good actually, and it would be wise of the Mavericks to bring him back slowly. The season’s over whether people want to admit it or not, so him getting hurt and becoming untradable would be a disaster.
Kawhi is a more interesting case. I don’t remember if he plays back-to-backs in normal situations but he’s recently returned from a 3 week absence following an ankle sprain. He was on fire last night against the Grizzlies and if he’s healthy enough to score 39, he should be healthy enough to play. The seasons slipping away for the Clippers and they have no reason to stop playing since they don’t own their own pick (the Thunder do, ugh).
The aforementioned old Clippers really ARE old. But the Mavericks have some youth they can roll out to push the pace on this Los Angeles team and perhaps grind out a win on a tired Saturday night. Cooper Flagg and Andrew Nembhard looked good against the Lakers. But Moussa Cisse and Jaden Hardy didn’t see the floor at all. Since I assume Davis will be out, Cisse in particular has a chance to use his endless energy to wear the Clipper bigs out.
Best chance for a Maverick win on this road trip
Before the NBA announced the Mavericks will be playing Utah and Brooklyn as additional games since they won’t advance in the NBA Cup, this Clippers game was one of the few remaining in 2025 where I thought the Mavericks either might be favored or stood a good chance to win. Considering the Clippers are currently a 7.5 point favorite as of this writing, it seems I’ve underestimated Los Angeles.
But I still believe Dallas can and maybe should win. I really want to see Leonard play and see he and Flagg match up against one another. The Mavericks just need to play hard and limit turnovers and they should be right there at the end of the game even if James Harden or Leonard go off.
Tonight’s game starts at 9:00 pm. The game will be streamed live on MavsTV as well as broadcast side-by-side on WFAA & KFAA-29. Fans can also tune in at 97.1FM KEGL (English) or at 99.1FM KFZO (Español).