The Mavericks and the Clippers essentially hate each other at this point, after the free agency saga involving DeAndre Jordan over the summer ended with him returning to Los Angeles, and breaking his verbal commitment to sign in Dallas.Â
Mark Cuban and Doc Rivers have traded shots through the media ever since, with Cuban saying most recently, "I just don't give a shit about the Clippers."
In the first meeting between the two teams since all of this went down, the animosity spilled onto the court during an exchange between Jordan and Dirk Nowitzki.
As Jordan attempted to aggressively post up Nowitzki, Dirk caught what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow to the side of the head. He retaliated as soon as he got the chance, hacking Jordan and following up with a little shove on the ensuing possession.
The referees didn't view it as a flagrant, and the result of the small dust-up was only technical fouls issued to Jordan, Blake Griffin, and Raymond Felton.
Cuban had also said, "You can change the owner, you can change the players but the Clippers are who they've been for the past 30 years." Chris Paul's response?
These teams really don't like each other, which is going to make Jordan's first game in Dallas on Nov. 11 extremely interesting to watch.
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[via PBT]
