With the Dallas Mavericks locked in to the seventh seed and the Los Angeles Lakers secured at the fourth worst record in the league, the two teams came into Sunday's matchup playing for pride. 

Rajon Rondo returned to the lineup after receiving the night off on Friday to rest, while Chandler Parsons was held out for a fourth consecutive game with knee issues.

The Mavericks jumped out to an early eight-point lead, but the Lakers, despite allowing Dallas to shoot over 63 percent from the field in the first quarter, found a way to remain within striking distance.

Los Angeles' transition defense continued to be lackluster in the second quarter, but their offense kept them in the game and only down five going into intermission. Rondo had a fantastic first half, tallying 11 points and three assists on 4 of 7 shooting. Though, on the other end, Wesley Johnson was feeling it from long distance, knocking down four first half triples and totaling 16 points.

Unfortunately for L.A., Johnson did not return in the second half after spraining his ankle. Ed Davis took his spot to start the third period. 

"The ankle started to swell," Coach Byron Scott said after the game. "I doubt he plays tomorrow."

The Mavericks continued to get easy looks on offense to expand their lead to 14 in the third, but the Lakers did not unravel. Rookie Jabari Brown cashed in nine points in the quarter, and at one point capped off a 7-0 run by himself to keep his team alive. 

Dallas created separation in the final quarter, going up by as many as 18 points. Jordan Clarkson and company attempted a comeback late in the game but came up very short, losing 120-106.

Jordan Clarkson put in a game-high 26 points, including six assists, while his backcourt mate, Jabari Brown, added 18 points. 

"I got to bring my A-game every night. If I don't, I'd get exposed," Clarkson said. 

"He wasn't bad," Coach Scott said about Clarkson matching up against Rondo. "He got a little careless a couple of times with the ball. Overall, he wasn't bad. If you look at his numbers, they were pretty good, but I got on him a couple of times about running the team." 

Rondo had a brilliant game tonight, reminiscent of his days in Boston, as he racked up 11 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds. Tyson Chandler scored a team-high 20 points for Dallas and added nine rebounds to lead the way. 

"Rondo was terrific. [He was] very aggressive, and I thought he did a good job on the boards too," Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said. "Right now it's just an opportunity to get tuned up headed into this weekend. It's a good win for us. It gives us a chance for 50 [wins]."

Tarik Black was a monster on the boards for L.A. tonight, gathering a career-high 19 rebounds to go with 10 points in 33 minutes. 

"I was just attacking the boards today," Black said. "I just saw the ball coming off the board and paid attention to all of them. I saw that our game was slow rebounding and I knew we had to step up the effort so that's what I did," added Black. 

Dallas' bench was key in this game, totaling 52 points, led by Raymond Felton's surprising 15 points in 18 minutes on 7 of 10 shooting. However, the Lakers only had three players come off the bench to combine for 26 points. 

"It was big and I thought that all the guys we went to off the bench did a terrific job," Coach Carlisle said about the bench's balanced scoring. "We had a lot of good things going there and we have to carry it into tomorrow."

As for the Lakers bench, it keeps getting thinner and thinner. After the contest, X-Rays revealed a broken third metacarpal in Dwight Buycks' right hand. He is finished for the season. Meanwhile, Wesley Johnson will travel with the team to Sacramento for tomorrow's game but is not expected to play, leaving the Lakers with eight healthy players. 

The Mavericks, who are looking to go into the playoffs with some momentum, will be in Utah tomorrow, April 13th, to play host to the Jazz.