In the only NBA game on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Dallas Mavericks 110-107 at the American Airlines Center. This victory helped the Clippers rise to second in the Western Conference and trail the Lakers by 3.5 games.

As the franchise players of each side, Kawi Leonard and Luka Doncic were 50-50 with their performance – Leonard dropped 36 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks while Doncic put down 36 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, and two blocks.

Kristaps Porzingis returned for the Mavericks in this game. He was 4-17 in field goals and 1-8 from downtown to score 10 points and nine rebounds. Apparently he was still rusty in offense.

The score told you how close the game was and the true process of the game further confirmed the idea. In fact, the Mavericks had multiple opportunities to tie the game, but they missed all of them. At 0:24 in the last quarter, Maxi Kleber dunked to narrow the Mavericks' trail down to three points (108-105). Then Delon Wright stole the inbound pass by Landry Shamet – the trailing Mavericks had the ball in their hands when there were 22 seconds left.

However, six seconds later, Tim Hardaway Jr. missed an open 3-pointer. The Mavericks had to commit a foul on JaMychal Green. Then Green missed both free throws, giving the Mavericks another chance. Nonetheless, Doncic was not fast enough to make the act of shooting when Shamet fouled on him so he only earned two free throws. Unfortunately, Doncic missed both attempts and the last opportunity of reversing the situation.

Hardaway's teammates did not blame him. Doncic called it "100 percent the right decision" to pass the ball to Hardaway. "Tim (Hardaway Jr.) was wide open, and I thought it was a great decision – the way Tim's shooting the ball, it's a great play. In that kind of situation, end of the game playing a team as good on defense as the clippers, it could be anybody that's open for a shot, but I thought that was a great play," said the Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle.

The most important reason behind the Mavericks' loss on Tuesday was the fact that there's nothing they could do to stop Leonard from scoring. It has been no news that the team lack proper-size forward players. Every time Leonard had the ball, the Mavericks had no one able to at least slow him down via one-on-one defense. The two-time NBA Finals MVP was 7-10 in the paint and 4-10 from the middle range. If he had shot a bit better than 1-9 from the 3-point line, the game would have been a total blowout.

Of course the win was not perfect for the Clippers either. The Mavericks saw their starting center Dwight Powell suffer a torn right Achilles tendon in the first quarter, they had to give Boban Marjanovic more time than usual, which turned out to work like a charm. The 2.21-meter-tall giant hurt the Clippers in their most vulnerable part: the paint. Having played 15 minutes, Marjanovic made five of his six attempts to get 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. What the stats did not tell you was that, his presence made the Clippers' bench ace pair, Lou Williams/Montrezl Harrell very uncomfortable and miss 12 of their 17 shots in the paint.

Things are not looking good for Powell. Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic said he might have suffered a "season-ending injury." Coach Carlisle said they won't know any thing for sure until the diagnostic test is finished but called Powell's injury "a real tough one."

Powell's injury may force the Mavericks to speed up in improving their franchise. So far the team have only Doncic who's able to pose enough threat to the opponents' basket. They are able to create opportunities but what they lack are good finishers, not to mention that Powell is one their best already.