LOS ANGELES — Tuesday night featured Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers taking on Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. When it comes to Doncic facing the Clippers, it's safe to assume the young Mavs star is dropping 40 points or a triple double.

Luka Doncic poured in 43 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in the loss to the Clippers, who entered this game on a six-game losing streak. Kawhi Leonard finished with a season-high 33 points and four steals in the 113-101 win over the Mavs.

The game marked Doncic's 27th game against the Clippers, and nine of those games have seen Luka score at least 40 points. Thank about that one for a quick second: A third of Doncic's games against the Clippers have been 40-burgers.

Following the game, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue was asked about Doncic's knack for playing outstanding basketball against his Clippers. All he could do was smile.

“This dude, man,” Tyronn Lue joked of Luka Doncic before pausing to answer the question. “He’s tough. He’s a tough cover. He loves playing against a lot of people, but for some reason he really loves playing against us. So we just got to pick our poison. When to let him play one on one, when to blitz him.

“When we get up in the game, when to take the blitz off so we don’t give up too many 3-point shots and I thought we did a really good job with that. Just mix it if we want to fire. Get it out of his hands. And if he wants to stay and play one-on-one, he’s taking tough 2s – well, not tough – but 2s on Norm in the post. Just staying at home so we don’t give up any 3-point shots.”

Luka Doncic was faced with a familiar question, but turned down that he doesn't have any extra juice playing against the team that eliminated him from the postseason in back-to-back years.

“I mean, we lost,” Doncic explained postgame. “So I don't know if it's a big night. They always have different coverages, but they're a great team. They beat us twice in playoffs. So they have a great team and it's always hard to play against them.”

Over his NBA career, Doncic has played 27 games against the Clippers, both regular season and playoffs. In those 27 games, he has nine 40-plus-point games, 15 30-plus-point games, and 21 25-plus-point games. In 27 matchups, Doncic and the Mavs are 11-16 against the LA Clippers.

Christian Wood has been a revelation for Dallas since he was inserted into the starting lineup a few weeks ago, averaging just a shade under 20 points per game on 53 percent shooting. Wood would finish the game with just 12 points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field.

“I think we went small, was able to switch 1-5, it kind of took him out of the game from being a stretch 5. And then also, when he rolls or Luka gets downhill vs. drop coverage, he gets easy baskets. So I thought by us being small and being able to switch 1-5, it kind of took him out of the pick-and-pop and the roll, just kind of took it away from him. So our guys did a good job with that, just making sure that we pushed up underneath, so he can’t get that speed roll behind the defense and get easy dunks.”

The win for the Clippers snapped a six-game losing streak, and there's no denying that Terance Mann sliding into the point guard position has helped. In the last two games against the Hawks and Mavs, the Clippers boasted a net rating of plus-18.7 in 26 minutes with that setup. It's a small sample, but Tyronn Lue sounds like he's ready to move on from a traditional point guard like a Reggie Jackson or a John Wall and continue to use more Mann at the point guard spot.

“I was a point guard, so I got a soft spot for point guards,” Lue said. “And I know y’all love wings. But it’s just – like I said, they’re all very good players. It’s just, the thing for us is we’re so small that it hurts us defensively. And it hurts us as far as rebounding the basketball. And so just doing some things different. Doesn’t mean Reggie’s done, nothing like that. Just looking at some different things to do and throw out there. And like I said, it’s been pretty good the last couple of games. We just got to see moving forward.”

With the Denver Nuggets coming up next with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, we definitely will see how the Clippers move forward.