Don Nelson stressed all week how he has finally settled on his rotation, talked about how important the Mavericks' final three preseason games were in preparing for the season and promised there would be more effort in actually winning the games.

So much for all the talk.

Because the Los Angeles Clippers stole the 101-99 victory Friday at American Airlines Center. And the Mavericks coach made it clear that it wasn't in the game plan for the Mavericks to drop to 3-3 in exhibition games.