NBA schedule and results: Mavericks beat Clippers in DeAndre Jordan’s return to Dallas

Nowitzki shot 11-of-14 from the field and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc to lead all scorers. He may not be much of a defender at his age, but the forward showed Wednesday that he can still jab-step, drill jumpers and hit the boards like few others. Until the day comes that Nowitzki can’t rise over defenders, which has always been tough considering he’s seven feet tall, he’s going to keep firing shots up.

The Clippers, meanwhile, didn’t hit another basket after Chris Paul’s three-pointer with just over three minutes remaining. The Mavericks ended the game on a 14-2 run. For a team that clearly hasn’t gotten over the Jordan ordeal completely, it was apparent Dallas wanted to finish out this one on top.

DeMarcus Cousins just won a loose ball for the Kings. He seemed fired up about it too. He did not seem very interested in high-fiving Kosta Koufos about it though.

For his part, Cousins made it up with a virtual high five on Twitter after the game.

DeAndre Jordan’s free agency decision between the Mavericks and Clippers turned the NBA into emoji madness. So it was only fitting that Jordan’s first game in Dallas after signing with the Clippers also ended with emojis.

When it comes to professional sports teams getting into it on Twitter, that is pretty outstanding work by the Mavericks. The only way that could have been better is if they attached a photo of a rocket emoji like Paul Pierce.

The Mavericks beat the Clippers on Wednesday night, and Dirk called game.

Then Justin Anderson tried to celebrate with him and ... aw, buddy.

Stephen Curry is so good, he does spectacular things that don’t even rate as the most impressive thing he did in just that game. Take this play for example:

A great steal and a deeeeep three to beat the buzzer. It’s a tremendous play. That might be the best play of a some player’s career. It’s the second-best Curry highlight of the third quarter. As good as that play is, it’s still not as good as Curry chucking up a 30-foot three that looked like a H-O-R-S-E shot and burying it.

Please watch as Steph Curry loses the ball at mid-court, dribbles between a pair of defenders and hoists up a one-handed, running 30-footer while falling to the ground. He banked it in, of course.

This might be the shot of the season. Until Steph Curry’s next shot, anyway.

Not scoring on a fast break opportunity is bad. Not scoring and having THIS be the shot is really bad.

That started off pretty rough, but the Rockets didn’t get an awful shot out of it. Marcus Thornton circled to the corner after giving up the initial pass and had a good look at three. That look just went very poorly.

Poor Knicks. Poor Kristaps Porzingis. They missed picking up a legendary win over the Charlotte Hornets by thiiiiis much.

That’s Porzingis making a game-winning three attempt with 0.4 seconds left. It’s barely -- BARELY -- in his arms. It may as well have counted.

You typically don’t expect your center to take the shot with the score tied and 1.5 seconds left. You don’t expect your center to hit a fadeaway jumper, either. Orlando’s Nikola Vuecevic just did both in his first game back with the Magic in a week.

But you know who was the most excited about Vucevic’s shot? The Magic’s mascot. Look at that sprint after he makes the shot:

It’s been a tough week for Boston Celtics big man Kelly Olynyk. First, he was ruthlessly crossed into Middle Earth by Jabari Parker. On Thursday, he fell down running backwards and the entire Internet laughed at him.

On the plus side, he did also eat a burrito in four bites. It’s all about perspective.

DeAndre Jordan is visiting Dallas on Wednesday night for the first time since he reneged on his verbal commitment to join the Mavericks as a free agent this summer. Mavs fans were expected to treat Jordan with hostility, and that’s exactly what has happened so far.

In between the endless booing and crowd shots of disgruntled fans holding up anti-Jordan signs, ESPN announcer Jeff Van Gundy ripped into Dallas for the way it was treating Jordan. Specifically, Van Gundy noted the “lunacy” of booing Jordan for changing his mind but cheering for someone like Greg Hardy. Hardy is a Dallas Cowboys defensive end who was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend in 2014.

Amir Johnson is a solid NBA defender. That doesn’t mean he should be guarding Monta Ellis. He drew that matchup on Tuesday and bad things happened.

It has not been a good couple days for Celtics defenders guarding crossovers. While Johnson got frozen and juked, it wasn’t quite as bad as what happened to Kelly Olynyk on Tuesday.

Dallas has completely lost it. That’s what happens when your sub-500 team loses to the now 1-6 Pelicans and you’re still looking for a scapegoat. The city’s obsession with DeAndre Jordan has reached its zenith with The Dallas Morning News printing a picture of Jordan with devil horns and urging fans to cut it out and use it as a mask when the Clippers roll into town.

Let’s look at the three biggest problems with this:

It’s hard to believe this ESPN promo for Clippers vs. Mavericks is real, and not some fan-made machination -- but it totally is. You know, it might be the best promo they’ve ever done.

Obviously the angle here is DeAndre Jordan vs. the Mavs after their free agency follies this summer, but setting all that to Phil Collins singing “Against All Odds” is a masterstroke. This is obviously THE story when the two teams meet, so why not have some fun with it?