DALLAS — Paul George and Kawhi Leonard gave the young European duo from the Dallas Mavericks the best look yet at life among the elite in the Western Conference.
George scored 17 of his 26 points in the first quarter, Leonard finished with 28 and the Los Angeles Clippers took control early in a meeting of teams with matching five-game winning streaks, beating the Mavericks 114-99 on Tuesday night.
The Clippers used several defenders to end Luka Doncic’s franchise-record streak of four games with at least 30 points and 10 assists, knocking the 20-year-old phenom to the floor early on a 4-of-14 shooting night. Doncic had 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Kristaps Porzingis was 4 of 13, the 7-foot-3 Latvian combining with the Rookie of the Year from Slovenia to go 8 of 27 compared to 19 of 42 for the LA stars. George added a career-high six steals to help hold the Mavericks under 100 points for the first time this season.
“They’re looking to win a championship; they played like it was a playoff game,” said Porzingis, who hit a 28-footer 22 seconds into the game and another 3-pointer from the logo at center court just before halftime but finished 3 of 8 from long range. He had 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“They played aggressively and they showed us that we have to learn how to play these games. We have to bring that same intensity.”
Patrick Beverley got in foul trouble as one of the defenders assigned to Doncic, who had to settle for doing most of his damage on free throws, making 14 of 16.
Beverley getting his fourth foul early in the second half just brought back Lou Williams sooner. The high-scoring reserve finished with 21 points, going 4 of 7 on 3s while Doncic missed all seven of his deep tries against the LA defense.
“That’s who we are as a team,” said George, who had all four of his 3-pointers in the first quarter. “We pride ourselves on defense. Offensively, we’ve got guys that can score the ball, but we want to make it tough on a nightly basis on whoever we’re playing.”
The Mavericks had taken the Southwest Division lead with a win at Houston for their fifth straight victory, and weren’t too far removed from a loss to LeBron James and the Lakers that required a buzzer-beating 3 to force overtime in Dallas.
But the other expected title contenders from LA offered a dose of reality for a team looking to end a three-season run without reaching the playoffs.
Dallas was trailing by three when Doncic joined the rest of the starters on the bench in the final minute of the first quarter. By the time those five came back together in the second, the Los Angeles lead was 48-32.
NUGGETS 117, WIZARDS 104
DENVER — Nikola Jokic had 20 rebounds and Jerami Grant scored a season-best 20 points to lead Denver over Washington.
Jokic finished one rebound shy of his career high and added eight points in Denver’s sixth straight win.
Will Barton had 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Nuggets, who are 10-1 in November and ended a three-game home losing streak against the Wizards. Jamal Murray scored 16 and Mason Plumlee 15.
Denver held one of the NBA’s most prolific offenses to its second-lowest point total of the season. Washington entered averaging 119.1 points and had failed to score at least 100 just once in 15 games. It needed 35 in the fourth to reach the century mark this time.
Bradley Beal, the Wizards’ leading scorer at 29.6 points per game, was held to 14 on 6-for-15 shooting. He was 2 of 10 from behind the 3-point line.
Jordan McRae had 21 points for Washington.
