• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Stackhouse's 3-pointer at the buzzer sends Mavs to win

Jan 13, 2008 - 7:33 AM By John Reger PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Jerry Stackhouse hit a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Dallas Mavericks a 95-94 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.

The Clippers, who had held the lead for all but three minutes of the game, had a chance to put the game away but forward Tim Thomas missed a jumper with 8.4 seconds remaining that gave the Mavericks a chance for a last shot, trailing by two.

"I should have pulled the ball out," Thomas said. "I figured I could go into the paint and score. It was one of those things. Being a vet, I should have known better; (it was a) big mistake on my part."

Even though Los Angeles needed to attempt a shot to avoid a 24-second shot clock violation, Thomas' jumper came with about seven seconds remaining on the shot clock, allowing Dallas to call a 20-second timeout to set Stackhouse up for his game-winning shot.

"It was just one of those plays," Stackhouse said. "We give it to our best player (Dirk Nowitzki), he draws the double-team and (Jason Terry) moved over and gave himself up. He saw that my guy rotated to him. Fortunately for me, I was able to knock it down."

Clippers guard Cuttino Mobley praised his struggling team while agreeing with Thomas' assessment that Los Angeles should have run more time off the clock.

"We've been playing good teams close lately," he said. "It was a big bucket by Stackhouse. What hurt us was, when we were up two, we should have held the ball, but that's what it is."

Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 22 points, Terry had 20 - to end a 12-game streak in which he failed to reach that mark - and Stackhouse added 13 for Dallas, which has won seven straight and 12 of its last 14 games.

In the third quarter, the Mavericks tied the game at 53-53, but the Clippers went on a 12-0 run, helped by a 3-pointer by Mobley, who took over for an injured Quinton Ross. Mobley had 11 of his 20 points in the quarter.

The Mavericks went nearly five minutes without scoring, finally getting a layup and free throw by Terry with 5:09 left in the period. They proceeded to go on a 14-2 run to get within two points near the end of the quarter.

Aided by two offensive fouls and a technical foul on Thomas, the Mavericks got to within one early in the fourth quarter. They took their first lead since 7:37 of the first quarter when Terry made a 3-pointer to make it 79-77.

"We just wanted to keep it as close as we could in the fourth quarter and give ourselves a chance to win," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "We were just really positive with each other during the timeouts and trying to let the men know that they're still in the game."

The Clippers went on a 11-4 run to take a 90-81 lead with 4:59 left, but watched a seven-point lead evaporate in just over two minutes as Nowitzki's jumper with 45 seconds left tied the score at 92-92.

Brevin Knight hit two free throws with 28 seconds remaining to move Los Angeles ahead, 94-92, before Thomas set the stage for Stackhouse's heroics.

Thomas had 21 to lead the Clippers, who lost their fourth straight game.

"It (stinks), what are you going to do about it?" Clippers center Chris Kaman said. "It's over, we played them pretty good, but we gave it away towards the end. It's frustrating. They made a great play. It's unfortunate the way it ended."