Mavericks outgun Clippers 91-85 in Summer League Game Four

The Dallas Mavericks faced the Los Angeles Clippers tonight at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, and emerged victorious, thanks to 23 points from Jackie Carmichael and 24 from Josh Akognon. They now get ready to face the top ranked Golden State Warriors tomorrow night.

It looked as though Dallas might be run out of the gym early in the first. The Clippers opened up a 20-10 advantage quickly, and the sloppy Maverick passing resulted in eight first quarter turnovers. Dallas began with Terrico White in the starting lineup instead of Josh Akognon, and White unfortunately did not capitalize on this change.

Akognon, now in the bench scorer role a la Jason Terry, caught fire in the second, and went into halftime as the only player in double figures in points with 15. Dallas had crawled back into the game and taken the lead, 44-42. Dallas would hold that margin for most of the rest of the game, and after the poor start, even managed to reign in the turnovers, committing just five in the final three quarters.

Dallas returns to game action tomorrow, their third game in as many nights, against top seeded Golden State, who have laid waste to Summer League teams so far this week. Dallas will certainly be put to the test.

Some observations:

• Jackie Carmichael had his coming out game tonight, being inserted into the starting lineup and finishing with 23 points and 9 boards. He is surprisingly athletic for a guy his size, and even has a decent midrange game. The Illinois State product is a bit undersized for center, at 6'9, 240, or otherwise I would be very interested in bringing him to Dallas.
• Jae Crowder went 0-4 tonight from three, bringing his Summer League three point percentage to 17% (3-18). I've said it before, but Jae is too good to settle for being a jumpshooter.
• As mentioned, Terrico White was put in the starting lineup, but went 0-6 in 17 minutes and generally failed to distinguish himself. White was an intriguing guy coming into this week, but sufficed to say the experiment has thusfar been a failure.
• D.J. Stephens finally did what I was hoping he'd do and threw down a monster slam tonight. Surprisingly, Stephens did most of his work from outside, however, nailing a couple of jumpers, and even a three. I'll go on record as saying if he can consistently knock down the jumpshot, I think he can play in the NBA.