Earl K. Sneed, Mavs.com
Portland Trail Blazers 85 at Dallas Mavericks 81
For the better part of a game and a half, the Dallas Mavericks played without their leader Dirk Nowitzki.
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Tuesday night, the Mavericks got their leading-scorer back on the court as Nowitzki battled through a deeply lacerated elbow injury to led his team against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Mavericks entered the night having won the last 11 meetings with the Blazers at home and 18 of the last 20 matchups in total. With his shooting arm heavily bandaged, No. 41 made a triumphant return to the Mavericks' starting lineup with a game-high 27 points but his team was unable to continue the trend against the Blazers, falling 85-81 after a 39-percent shooting night.
"(The bandage on his right arm) was pretty big, but I have to admit it felt pretty good," Nowitzki said after the game about playing with the injury. "I was not really worried about getting the ball up or shooting, it was more hitting it.
"But it's a tough loss. As good a team as we are, we should have found a way to win this game. There's no way we should have loss that game tonight. We held a Portland team too 85 points, you figure if they put 85 on the board we'll find a way to get 90. I don't think our defense was bad...We lost that game on offense."
Aside from an explosive third quarter from Dallas, Portland kept the Mavericks' scoring to a minimum. On a night where only two Mavs, Nowitzki and J.J. Barea, scored in double figures, the Mavs struggled to duplicate the balanced scoring that helped Dallas overtake Cleveland 102-95 just two nights before.
"You can't play one good quarter of basketball and expect to win an NBA game," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "It just doesn't work that way."
"I don't know if guys relaxed too much when I was (on the court), but they looked good the other night," Nowitzki said after his teammates weren't as aggressive in his return as they were in his absence.
Matched up with the Blazers' LaMarcus Aldridge, Nowitzki let the game come to him early on. But with the team struggling to produce points and forward Shawn Marion in early foul trouble, Dallas turned to their superstar to provide the scoring in the opening period and Nowitzki gladly obliged with six points. At the 3:12-mark of the quarter, the injury-riddled Blazers took another blow when Joel Przybilla was assisted off the court by teammates with a ruptured patella tendon and dislocated patella in his right knee. Meanwhile, Aldridge and Brandon Roy had Portland covered, lifting the Blazers to an 18-14 advantage after one. Both teams struggled putting the ball in the basket early, as the Blazers' 33 percent from the field was just better than Dallas' 26 percent shooting.
"It's disappointing, especially at home," Barea said. "We just didn't come out well. They were playing harder than us."
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
With Nowitzki on the bench, Josh Howard and Barea picked up the pace and put Dallas ahead in the early minutes of the second quarter. But Dallas had no answer defensively for Aldridge, as the big man poured in 11 of his 17 first half points in the second quarter to take the Blazers to a 44-33 halftime lead.
The 33-point output was a season-low for a half, as the Mavericks shot just 33 percent in the first 24 minutes. Though Portland shot just 39 percent at the other end, Aldridge's scoring and an 11-4 edge in second chance points was plenty to build the double-digit lead.
"We just never were quite right all night and Portland took advantage of it," Carlisle said. "Aldridge had a great first half and then other guys got into it the rest of the game."
The Mavericks found the shooting touch in the third quarter while clamping down on defense, using a 16-6 run at the beginning of the period to cut the deficit to 50-49 with 7:00 left in the third on Barea's driving layup. The speedy guard then gave the Mavs a slight advantage, 55-54, on another drive at the 4:31-mark. The quarter was all about Barea and Nowitzki, as the two each posted 11 points in the period. When the cat-quick combo guard headed to the bench, Nowitzki took over the scoring load as Dallas outscored Portland 32-14 in the quarter to take a 65-58 edge into the fourth.
"I was just trying to attack," Barea said of his play in the third quarter. "I take what the defense gives me. Sometimes I have to shoot, sometimes I get to the paint and see somebody open and I'll pass it. If I've got to shoot it, I'll shoot it. If I have to pass it, I'll pass it.
"I think in the third quarter, we got fast. We attacked the paint in the third quarter and it was working out. Then we had a letdown in the fourth quarter."
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Roy and his patented step-back jumper put the Blazers back on top, playing like the All-Star that he is to help the Blazers retake the lead midway through the fourth quarter. Getting help from Steve Blake and Jerryd Bayless, Roy and the Blazers sprinted to an 81-73 advantage with 3:48 remaining.
"Roy hit some big shots down the stretch. They chipped away at us. Blake hit a three. Bayless hit a three. Juwan Howard goes for 10 points. And so, it's just a combination of things adding up," Carlisle said.
But Dallas wouldn't go quietly into the night, as Nowitzki brought his squad back by raining in a 3-pointer with 1:16 on the clock to cut the deficit to 83-81. After getting a defensive stop, No. 41's game-tying shot attempt rimmed in and rolled out with 38.9 ticks left.
"I feel like when I'm there, I have to make every shot down the stretch to win the game," Nowitzki said. "Myself, I still have to make that shot. The pull-up I had to tie it going left, I have to find a way to tie it."
Down two, the Mavericks received a major scare when point guard Jason Kidd hit the court hard contesting Roy's shot attempt. While Kidd lay in pain, Jason Terry took the rebound from the missed shot and sprinted back to the other end, but his driving layup rolled off the iron and Portland snatched the rebound with 6.8 seconds remaining.
"Kidd is down. It probably would have been wiser to call timeout, but hey, we've been good on the fly before -- getting a stop and then being aggressive in transition. So, we can't really fault Jet (Terry) on that. He made an aggressive play, got to the basket and then just didn't get the roll. Afterwards you're always smarter, and it probably would have been better to pull the ball out, get a timeout and set the play up and try to tie the game up," Nowitzki said of the final seconds.
"I'm the head coach, so I'm accountable for the result of that play," Carlisle said. "The fact that we didn't call time out is on me. I take responsibility for that, so that's my fault."
Kidd remained in the game, but Terry's foul on Andre Miller sent the Blazers' point guard to the free throw line with 6.5 seconds on the game clock. The veteran calmly knocked down a pair to extend the Portland lead to 85-81. After Terry's desperation attempt at the other end missed the rim, the Blazers ran the clock out to end their winless streak in Dallas. Portland outscored the Mavericks 27-16 in the fourth.
There is no injury to report on Kidd.
In addition to Nowitzki's 27 points, on 10-of-13 shooting, the 7-footer grabbed nine rebounds while playing 41 minutes in his return. Barea finished with 22 points. The rest of the team combined to score 32 points on 12-of-51 shooting. Dallas also struggled from the foul line, hitting just 12-for-22 at the charity stripe, while Portland capitalized off of their freebies by hitting 16-of-19 from the line.
Aldridge scored just two points in the second half to bring his total to 19 points, to go along with 12 rebounds. But Roy scored 10 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth to lead the Blazers to the victory.
Now the Mavericks will try to correct things over the Christmas holiday before welcoming in divisional foe Memphis on Saturday afternoon. Dallas will try to avenge a 98-82 road loss to the Grizzlies on Dec. 4.
"They're really playing well," Nowitzki said of the upstart Grizzlies squad. "They've got three legit scorers with (Zach) Randolph, (Rudy) Gay and obviously (O.J.) Mayo. They really took it to us in Memphis, played a good game and beat us.
"We have to be ready, but this one is going to be a tough one to swallow. I'll probably sit with this one for three days. Over the Christmas break, sitting with a loss is awful. It's something you want to avoid but you can't change it now...Try to enjoy Christmas with the family and then come ready on the 26th in an early game."
That game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 2:00 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS.
The Mavericks and the NBA have introduced the official NBA All-Star game ballot, featuring Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. For more on how to vote for your favorite Mavs for the All-Star game, to be held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, visit Mavs.com.
Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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