By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Sports Writer
DALLAS — Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers are in a far better place than they were for their previous trip to Dallas last month, just after James Harden had joined their lineup.
On the best run in the NBA at the moment.
Leonard scored 30 points, and the Clippers held on after squandering all of a 22-point lead, extending their win streak to nine games with a 120-111 victory over the Mavericks on Wednesday night.
All-Star Paul George was sidelined by an illness, but Norman Powell scored 21 points off the bench and Harden had 17 points and 11 assists. The Clippers are on their longest winning streak since a 10-game run in 2015-16 and have won 14 of 17 since their six-game losing streak.
Dallas star Luka Doncic’s franchise record of 11 consecutive games with at least 30 points ended with 28 in a sixth straight game without All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, who has a bruised right heel.
Doncic recorded his sixth triple-double by getting 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
When they lost, 144-126, at Dallas on Nov. 10, the Clippers hadn’t won since acquiring Harden in a trade with Philadelphia and were on their way to that six-game losing streak.
“It’s going to take time for them to find the rhythm, find the continuity, find the chemistry,” Powell, who tied his season high in scoring, said of matching Harden with Leonard, George and Russell Westbrook.
“It’s no summer league, summertime pickup basketball where you’re doing whatever you want,” Powell said. “There’s a system in place, and everybody’s got to figure out their role and how it goes.”
With the Clippers leading by one late in the fourth quarter, Leonard, who also had 10 rebounds, hit a layup and assisted on a three-point play by Powell.
The two-time NBA Finals MVP then had a dunk and a layup on either side of two missed free throws from Doncic as part of a 9-0 run that made it 120-110 with 52 seconds remaining.
Amir Coffey scored 12 points in his second start of the season, both in place of George in the past four games. George missed the previous game with a hip injury.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 21 points for Dallas, and Derrick Jones Jr. had 19.
In addition to Irving, Dallas is without rookie center Dereck Lively II because of a sprained ankle and guard Josh Green, who has a sprained elbow.
The Dallas rally kicked into gear with an unusual sequence in the final minute of the first half after the Mavericks trailed by 22 midway through the second quarter.
Hardaway had three misses on the same possession, dropping him to 1 for 10, before getting a fourth shot and hitting a 3-pointer. Grant Williams had two of the three offensive rebounds.
Thirty seconds later, Hardaway beat the first-half buzzer with a 29-foot 3-pointer to get the Mavericks within 11 at 67-56, the closest they had been since early in the second quarter.
“When you’re short-handed, you’ve got to make shots,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “We started to make shots there at the end of the second.”
UP NEXT
The Clippers play at Oklahoma City on Thursday at 5 p.m. PT to finish a back-to-back and conclude a three-game trip sandwiched between four-game homestands.