It took less than 24 hours for the Dallas Mavericks to show everyone that what happened to them Tuesday night
in San Francisco was nothing but an aberration.
One night after losing to the Golden State Warriors by 38 points, the Mavs laced up their sneakers, held their heads high and walloped the Portland Trail Blazers, 132-112, on Wednesday night at the Moda Center. In winning for the 12th time in their last 15 games, the Mavs lowered the boom on the Blazers and also bumped their record to 28-21 in the process.
Along the way, it was a textbook performance by the Mavs, who received a triple-double from Luka Doncic, saw seven players score in double-figures, and had the ball hopping so much that they dispensed 34 assists, shot 54.5 percent from the field and converted 16-of-36 shots from beyond the three-point line.
In order words, the Mavs were steaming mad at themselves for allowing the Warriors to walk all over them, and somebody had to incur the wrath. That somebody was the Blazers.
More importantly, the Mavs didn’t have a whole lot of time to stew over that 130-92 loss to the Warriors.
“I think sometimes the schedule can help you or hurt you, and this one helped us by having a game where we didn’t have to sit around and look at each other after (Tuesday) night’s performance,” coach Jason Kidd said. “It’s really simple as I said before the game: If you’re unselfish, communicate and play hard, you put yourself in position to win.
“It took a bounce-back game after a performance that we normally feel like we didn’t show or didn’t do what we needed to do.”
For now, all’s well in the Mavs’ world as they put on an incredible displaying of shooting and passing against the Blazers, who dropped to 20-28.
Doncic picked up his sixth triple-double of the season and the 42nd of his career as he kept whistling passes by the Blazers’ ears for easy opportunity baskets for his teammates. Be it no-look passes or passes on the front end of a lob dunk, Doncic was spectacular as he finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists.
“Having a bunch of guys touch the ball is super important for us,” said Dwight Powell, who finished with 15 points, five boards and two steals. “Tonight we had guys scoring in double figures, but regardless of what the percentages are, or the point totals, if everybody is touching the ball it’s a good thing.
“The note of a good team is having different guys carrying the load at different times. So it’s important for us to share the ball, and we play at our best when everybody is touching it, and tonight everybody was scoring, which is even more fun.”
The Mavs started the fun by scoring the game’s first eight points. They led from wire-to-wire and just had a certain bounce in their legs that appeared as though they knew that — regardless of what happened against the Warriors — they were going to take care of business against the Blazers.
Meanwhile, after booting the basketball into the stands during Tuesday’s game and subsequently drawing a $15,000 fine from the NBA, Kristaps Porzingis made the Blazers pay for his frustrations as he scored 14 of his 22 points in the first quarter when he also threw down four of his five dunks.
By the conclusion of the first quarter the Mavs were ahead, 40-25, and were in one of those grooves that every team loves to fall into, as they shot 65.2 percent from the field, made 5-of-7 baskets from downtown and distributed 10 assists.
“We weren’t happy with how we played (Tuesday), especially myself,” Porzingis said. “So in this game we wanted to come out ready and just be the first ones to punch, and that’s what we did early on and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game.”
While setting the tone and flushing the unfortunate loss to the Warriors out of their system, the Mavs muscled their way to an 18-point lead in the second quarter and led 68-59 at intermission. Portland eventually chopped the deficit down to 80-76 late in the third quarter.
However, fueled by some terrific passing from Doncic, the Mavs went on a brisk 18-4 run to pad their advantage to 98-80 just before the third quarter expired after Doncic fired a couple of breathtaking passes which Reggie Bullock turned into a pair of three-point baskets.
And with Brunson scoring 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, the Mavs compiled a 126-104 lead with 3:38 remaining in the game after Bullock drained another three-pointer via a feed from Doncic.
“The ball was moving,” said Brunson, who also contributed six rebounds and a career-high tying 11 assists. “It was good that the ball was going in the hoop for a lot of guys.
“It’s a credit to them. They were making the shots.”
It was a job well done by practically everyone who punched the time clock for the Mavs, including Maxi Kleber (12 points, five rebounds, three blocks), Dorian Finney-Smith (11 points) and Bullock (15 points).
Brunson talked about how Kidd holds the players accountable, and how the players hold each other accountable, during both the 
good and bad times. That’s why, Brunson said, the Mavs were able to seamlessly move on from getting routed by the Warriors to going out and routing the Blazers a day later.
“I think for the most part it’s just being able to see a play or have a play happen and then move on to the next one knowing that we can get better from it,” Brunson said. “We’re not really pointing fingers at anybody or anything.
“We’re just trying to get to the next play and just trying to correct it throughout the game. We always try to help each other and have each other’s back.”
And while they’re having each other’s back, that formula has turned into a winning recipe for Dallas, who will host former Mavs coach Rick Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers on Saturday at 6 p.m. at American Airlines Center.
“We had some moments where we relaxed maybe a little bit and they got their offense going,” Porzingis said. “But overall I think we were moving the ball great, everybody was touching it, everybody felt involved and it shows in the results.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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