On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 132-112, bouncing back from their season-worst 38-point loss to the Golden State Warriors the night before.
Luka Doncic had his sixth triple-double of the season with 15 points, 15 assists, and ten rebounds. Kristaps Porzingis was the team’s leading scorer with 22 points, scoring 14 of his points in the first quarter.
In all, the Mavericks had seven players score in the double-digits, a complete turnaround from their loss against the Warriors when double-digits were achieved by only three.
“It feels good when the ball is going in the hoop for a lot of guys,” Jalen Brunson said postgame. Brunson had 20 points, 11 assists, and six rebounds.
Another improvement from Tuesday night’s loss was the team’s ball movement. After having just 17 assists on 32 made shots against the Warriors, the Mavericks more than doubled that number against Portland with assists on 35 of the team’s 48 made shot attempts.
Doncic led with a season-high-tying 15 assists, while Brunson’s 11 assists came with zero turnovers. These stats make them the first pair of Mavericks players to have ten or more assists in the same game since Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd on March 29, 2010.
Dallas set the tone early behind Porzingis’ 14 points in the first quarter. Doncic added ten points and the Mavericks held a solid 40-25 lead after the opening quarter.
“We wanted to come out ready and be the first ones to the punch,” Porzingis said postgame. “That’s what we did early on and set the tone for the rest of the game. We had some moments where we relaxed maybe a little bit, and they got their offense going, but overall, we were moving the ball great. Everybody was touching it. Everybody felt involved, and it just shows in the result.”
The Trail Blazers were missing several key players, including their All-Star point guard, Damian Lillard.
Portland’s All-Star deficit coupled with Dallas’ big first quarter made it appear likely that the Mavericks would quickly run away with the game. Dallas opened a lead as large as 18 points in the second quarter, but turnovers helped Portland close the gap and win the quarter 34-28.
At halftime, the Mavericks led 68-59.
In the third, the Trail Blazers once again closed the gap, narrowing the Mavericks lead to 80-76 with 4:48 left in the quarter. Then, Dwight Powell sparked an 18-5 run by Dallas to end the quarter, taking a 98-81 lead at the start of the fourth. Powell finished with 15 points and five rebounds.
The Mavericks would lead by double-digits for the remainder of the game.
This season, Dallas is now 6-3 in the second night of back-to-back games. They went 8-8 in such games last season and 7-6 in the 2019-20 season.
The Mavericks have not lost two consecutive games since December 23-25, when the team was in the midst of an eleven-player COVID-19 outbreak.
“Whenever you look at teams that don’t lose two in a row, they tend to be in the Finals or be close to getting into the Finals,” Coach Kidd said postgame. “Those are the elite teams. If you have that mentality, that can put you in a special place, and hopefully, we’re working toward that.”
Dallas is now 10-3 since the start of 2022, the second-best record in the NBA.