Before there could be pride, there apparently had to be penance.

There were all sorts of reasons the Clippers had lost their first six games of this new season. Injuries, the NBA schedule makers, a strange penchant for long stretches of narcolepsy late in games, and a constant parade of the Western Conference’s top teams and players coming through the Staples Center doors.

“We’ve been losing and making a lot of excuses,” Clippers point guard Baron Davis said. “And tonight was the night that guys just said, `my bad,’ and pushed forward.”

Or, more succinctly, Sunday was the day the Clippers got off the schneid.

Davis had 22 points and 10 assists to lead the Clippers to their first win of the season, a 103-92 victory over Dallas Sunday afternoon at Staples Center, snapping their six-game losing streak to the Mavericks.

“Getting that monkey off our back, it feels real good,” said Clippers forward Marcus Camby, who finished with nine points, 14 rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes, his longest playing time of the season.

“We just kept feeling we were right there, we were always into the ball-game with these so-called elite teams and just weren’t able to get over the hump.”

The Clippers got there on Sunday with a little extra push from their bench, which had been virtually non-existent in the first six games. Rookie Eric Gordon was very productive in his career-high 29 minutes, scoring 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting. He made three of the four, 3-point shots he took.

Reserve forward Paul Davis, inactive just two nights earlier in the Clippers’ loss to Houston, had 10 points and three rebounds in 18 minutes of work. Ricky Davis chipped in five points and one very large takedown of Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki at the end of the third quarter. He was assessed a technical foul, costing the Clippers a free throw shot, but the message had been delivered.

“Unfortunately he got subbed right after that,” Camby joked. “But it was a big play, kind of let Dallas know we were going to fight to get this win.”

After living in a fairly dark, depressing space for the first two weeks of the season, the Clippers finally got into the win column and the sense of relief in the locker room was palpable.

Thornton, who got into foul trouble and played just 4:37 in the first half, seemed to channel all of his frustrations from the losing streak into a virtuoso second half as he poured in 14 of his 17 points after halftime.

“`It’s been hell. I mean, I’ve never lost this many games (at the start of a season) in anything,” Thornton said of the 0-6 start. “I didn’t really want to do anything but sit home and watch the games. I turned my phone off. My girlfriend can’t get in touch with me.

“So now I guess I’m going to talk to her a little bit more.”

He can also cut his hair.

“I wasn’t going to cut it until we got a win,” Thornton joked. “So thankfully I can cut it now, freshen up my look.”

But as good as Sunday’s win felt though, the Clippers are still just 1-6 on the year.

The Mavericks (2-4) were without Josh Howard (hamstring). The Clippers were without Tim Thomas (ankle), who will miss a week to ten days from the time he was injured last Friday.

“We’re happy, but then again we have one win out of seven games, it’s not very exciting,” center Chris Kaman said.“But I’m happy, we got one win and I think we’re going to get some more wins. We just have to keep playing the right way.”

Sunday night that meant discovering some intestinal fortitude when Dallas went on an 8-0 run over a 1 minute, 22 second span midway through the fourth quarter to tie the game at 79-79. On the previous possession, Dunleavy had called a timeout, where he proceeded to blister the team.

Asked what Dunleavy said during that timeout, which came with the Clippers leading 79-77 with 8:50 to go, Thornton said, “You should ask him that.” How many of Dunleavy’s words were of the four-letter variety? “Too many,” Thornton said with a smile.

Whatever the case, the lecture seemed to work as the Clippers came back with a 13-0 run to extend the lead back out to 92-79 with 5:23 to play.

Nowitzki tried to rally the Mavs, scoring 11 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth, but it was too little, too late.

“We just could not get stops,” Dallas point guard Jason Kidd said. “If we cannot get out and run, that puts a lot of pressure on our defense.”

Kidd had seven points, nine assists and three steals. He took just five shots in 35 minutes of play.