The Clippers lost a close game in Dallas Monday against the Mavericks. The Mavericks won the contest 96-92 thanks in large part to the late play of Dirk Nowitski. The win moves the Mavericks closer to taking the lead in the division as they have been playing solid basketball to get themselves back into contention. The reigning champs are now 18-11 on the year and improved their home record to 11-5. The game really showed that they can hang with, and beat, one of the leagues best and are still a team to watch out for.

The Clippers were led by Butler who scored 23 in the game. Chris Paul added 9 assists, which led all players. They started off the game slow as they fell behind 27-19 after the first. They came back in the third outscoring the Mavericks 29-19 though. The game then went into the fourth close, but they were outscored 22-16 to ultimately lose the game. The team remains in first place and are 2 games up on the Lakers despite the loss.

The Mavericks were led by Dirk Nowitski who scored 22 in the contest and came up big late in the game. Brendan Heyward added 9 rebounds to lead the team and Jason Kidd led the team in assists with 4. The team has been on a roll lately and now finds themselves just 1.5 games back of San Antonio for first place. The team has really started to gel and is showing that they may have enough to defend their title.