The Dallas Mavericks (12-10) have a dominant start against the Portland Trail Blazers (13-11). Dallas may have to tremble again towards the end of the game, but thanks to the strong bench around Maxi Kleber, the Mavs finally secure the 111:102 victory (BOXSCORE).
After Kuka Doncic (hip) as well as Maxi Kleber (knee) had to pass due to minor injuries in their last win against the Clippers, they both played against Portland again.
As expected, Doncic was right back in the starting five and returned with an ice-cold threesome after a good six minutes. His team-mates also started the game with a hot hand from downtown, in the first quarter alone Dallas hammered 5 threesomes (in 9 attempts) around the ears of the guests.
Although the Trail Blazers held up well at first, after the Mavs finished the run with a 17:3 run, the home side had clearly distanced themselves to 34:20. And also in the second section it went on excellently from Mavs point of view.
Kleber set the exclamation mark on a 6:0 run with a nice jump hook, with which the Mavs extended their lead up to 17 points. Although Portland started smaller runs every now and then, Dallas always found a suitable answer quickly. So it went finally with 60:45 for the Hausherren into the half-time break.
After the side change, however, the Mavericks always left good opportunities to further set themselves apart. Instead, they took a little foot off the gas, which immediately took revenge. Slowly but surely Damian Lillard turned on the other side.
After a weak first half, in which he put a wide open dunk on the ring, he led Portland with 15 points in the third section back within striking distance. In the meantime the Trail Blazers had even reduced the gap to 8 points.
But then the bank put the Mavs back on track. First Dwight Powell sunk two three in a row from exactly the same spot, then Kleber brought his team into front with a crashing Putback Dunk with 87:73. With this score we finally went into the final quarter.
There J.J. Barea and Co. continued the run, at the end of a cross-quarter 10:0 run Dallas had a 19 point lead on the credit side. Kleber and Co. continued to apply pressure afterwards as well. The German convinced with a spectacular Alley-Oop as well as a block on the other side of the court.
But that shouldn’t be it by a long shot. When the starters of both teams came back on the floor, Portland started the next comeback attempt. Again it was Lillard (33 points and 8 assists) who brought his team within striking distance with numerous strong actions.
First Portland shortened with a 7:0-Run to 7 points, about one and a half minutes before the siren Lillard provided with a Tip-In even for the 99:105 from Portland point of view. But on the other side Doncic had the right answer. He took the Mavs back to 9 points with a step-back-three.
Shortly thereafter Dennis Smith Jr. (11 and 9) set the Dagger after a perfectly played, long Outlet Pass by Doncic – 110:99 and thus victory for Dallas! After all, the Slovenian was also the top scorer of his team.
The No.3-Pick scored 21 points and additionally snatched 9 rebounds. Meanwhile Wesley Matthes came to 17 points, DeAndre Jordan had a strong double (12 points, 17 rebounds) and Kleber finished the game with 8 points, 5 rebounds (4 of them on the offensive board), 3 steals, 2 assists and one block.
Dallas secured their ninth victory from the last eleven games, and the Mavs continued to fly high. The mood of the Trail Blazers was quite different. Despite Lillard’s strong appearance, the visitors had to accept the sixth bankruptcy from the past seven games.
Dallas Mavericks (12-10) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (13-11) 111:102 (BOXSCORE)
The Bank of Mavs. The lineup around Barea, Kleber and Powell did a really good job from the bank. This was mainly due to the unrestrained effort the reservists put down on the floor – both in the defense and on the other side of the court in the form of some important offensive rebounds.
Jusuf Nurkic. There was relatively little to see of the three-headed monster of the Trail Blazers that evening. Besides Lillard, who turned up late, and C.J. McCollum, who still contributed 18 points, Nurkic was particularly disappointed, who could not set any offensive accents and was defensively taken by surprise time and again. In addition, he also had 6 fouls early on the bench.
It was a bit hard to understand why Mavs coach Rick Carlisle sent his starters back on the floor about 7 minutes before the end, after the reservists had again given the team a big advantage. The starters, on the other hand, did not have a lot to do in the offensive. The ball movement, which was strong over long periods of the game, came to a standstill in many sequences, so that Dallas did not get any good throws. So the landlords made the Trail Blazers possible again the comeback.