DESPITE LOSS, CLIPS NOT WORRIED DUNLEAVY PRAISES TEAM'S EFFORT AGAINST MAVS DALLAS 75, CLIPPERS 73.

Byline: Joe Stevens Staff Writer

The Clippers could be fretting, wondering if their second winning season in Los Angeles is spiraling out of control.

It sure looked like trouble during a disastrous second quarter in which the Dallas Mavericks outscored them by 19 points. Things also looked troublesome after a heartbreaking jump shot by Dirk Nowitzki with 0.7 seconds left gave the Clippers a 75-73 loss Monday night at Staples Center.

But coach Mike Dunleavy and his team somehow walked away optimistic as ever, even though the Clippers lost a third consecutive game and took a third loss in three tries against Dallas.

No, it wasn't reverse psychology. The Clippers held Dallas to just 25 points in the second half and showed that they won't be pushovers if they meet the Mavericks.

And apparently, with Sam Cassell, Corey Maggette and Vladimir Radmanovic all ailing, that was good enough for the Clippers to be happy.

"I don't think either team walks away thinking they have a major edge," Dunleavy said. "I think they know if we play really well, we can beat them. And we know, if they play well that they can beat us. If we get that type of defensive effort every night, I'll take our chances."

But here's the rub: The Clippers might not have to face Dallas anyway.

With the loss, the Clippers moved into a tie with Memphis for the fifth seed, and if the season ended today, they would actually face Denver because Memphis holds the tiebreaker.

Conventional wisdom says that the Clippers would want to stay in the sixth spot and face third-seeded Denver because they could have home-court advantage against them. The Clippers have to tie the Nuggets or finish with a better record to have homecourt. With the Clippers' loss and Denver's win Monday, they are tied with 44 wins, but the Clippers have played one less game.

There is hardly anything conventional about Chris Kaman, and he says he'd actually prefer to play the Mavericks.

"I hope we play against these guys in the playoffs because I think we've matched up well against them the last couple games," Kaman said. "It would be interesting. We probably wouldn't have homecourt advantage, obviously, so we would be behind the 8-ball."

Kaman played great against Dallas with 22 points and 12 rebounds. He mostly defended Nowitzki, who was held to 20 points on 6-of-19 shooting and 14 rebounds.

He also had a hand in Nowitzki's face when he made a 12-foot jump shot with 0.7 seconds left.

After being outscored 33-14 in the second quarter to trail 50-40 at halftime, the short-handed Clippers were fortunate to have a shot at the end. They also were fortunate to have a shot because Elton Brand shot 26.7 percent (4 of 15) for his worst shooting night of the season and finished 13 points and nine rebounds.

With 17 seconds left, Shaun Livingston had a chance to give the Clippers their first lead of the second half, but he made only one of his two free throws to tie the score at 73.

"I wanted that moment to happen," Livingston said. "Obviously, that's everybody's dream who plays the game, to have a chance to win it at the end. But I just got up there and rushed the shots."

On Dallas' ensuing possession, Nowitzki made the winning shot.

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(color) Dallas guard Jason Terry, left, scores over the Clippers' Elton Brand during the first half.

Chris Pizzelo/Associated Press