Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points and Darius Garland added 22 as the Los Angeles Clippers improved their play-in tournament seeding with a 116-103 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday at Inglewood, Calif.
John Collins scored 12 points and Derrick Jones Jr. added 11 points with 10 rebounds as the eighth-place Clippers (41-38) moved a full game ahead of the ninth-place Portland Trail Blazers.
The Clippers and Blazers will meet Friday at Portland in the chase for a preferred eighth-place play-in spot. Los Angeles improved to 7-2 since an overtime victory at Dallas on March 21.
Cooper Flagg scored 25 points and Marvin Bagley III added 21 as the Mavericks (25-54) fell to 2-9 since March 16. The 19-year-old Flagg reached 25 points for the 21st time in his rookie season and was coming off consecutive games of 45 and 51 points.
Max Christie and Ryan Nembhard each scored 12 points for Dallas, which lost for the third time in four games against Los Angeles this season.
The Clippers got off to a fast start by taking a 17-0 lead just over three minutes into the game. Los Angeles led by as many as 23 points in the opening quarter and finished the period with a 39-26 advantage.
The Mavericks continued to chip away, pulling within 65-55 at halftime then taking their first lead at 78-77 on a 3-pointer from Klay Thompson with 3:20 remaining in the third.
The Clippers closed the period on a 12-4 run, with Leonard scoring 10 of the points, and took an 89-84 advantage into the fourth.
The Clippers took control with a late 13-3 run to take a 112-96 lead with 3:15 remaining following a dunk from Bennedict Mathurin.
Leonard was 11-of-19 from the floor for the Clippers, who shot 44.6% as a team. The Mavericks shot 35% and managed to eliminate their big early deficit even while finishing 18.2% from 3-point range.
Thompson scored 11 points for the Mavericks on 4-of-17 shooting from the floor, including 1-of-10 from 3-point range.
–Field Level Media
