James Harden closes Game 4 victory as Clippers even series with Mavericks

DALLAS — The Clippers were missing their main cog, the absence of Kawhi Leonard because of right knee inflammation and swelling for Game 4 leaving the group shorthanded in what was deemed a potential series-altering playoff encounter.

But these were the moments why the Clippers acquired James Harden, why the Clippers acquired another future Hall of Famer, why the Clippers felt good about their chances even when Leonard can't play.

And James didn't let the Clippers down by scoring 12 of their final 16 points to help them withstand blowing a 31-point, finishing with 33 points to lead LA to a 116-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday afternoon at American Airlines Center.

With Harden's seven assists and six rebounds along with Paul George's series-high 33 points, eight assists and six rebounds, the Clippers tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

Kyrie Irving led the Mavericks with 40 points.

Game 5 is Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Leonard was ruled "out" before the game started and there is no timetable for his return, said Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations.

Leonard missed Game 1 of the series, returned to play 34 minutes 55 seconds in Game 2 and just 24:32 in Game 3, when he was laboring the entire game.

"He's extremely disappointed and frustrated that he's not playing today," Frank said. "He wants to play, but it was obviously in Game 3 that his mobility was severely restricted. So, organizationally we just made a decision that he's out.

"The obvious question, and I know it's coming so I'll beat you to it, when he's coming back? Um, can't tell you a timeline. I wish I had a crystal ball. Basically until he can show that he can make all the movements that he needs to make, that's when he'll come back. That will be the timeframe."

Frank said Leoand wanted to play, but that "he's obviously restricted" and that even using their best player as a shooter in the corner was not a viable option for a Clippers team that was trailing 2-1 in the series.

"Game 2, he felt fine. It was basically condition, rhythm, timing," Frank said. "The following night some of the swelling came back. We were comfortable with what the amount of swelling was. We obviously reduced his minutes and played him in a different way. But when you watch him play, it was very obvious that that's not Kawhi Leonard and we have to be able to get him to a point where he feels like he felt in Game 2. The expectation is that he would progress, but it didn't work out that way so he obviously needs more time."

Frank said the team did "another image" on Leonard's knee and that it "structually was intact."

"There's different thoughts of why there's inflammation," Frank said. "He's doing around the clock every (method) you can do. The medical staff is doing everything that they can do and we knew that there was a chance that it could come back. It's just hard to predict. … There's no acute injury. It's just been really tricky."