PORTLAND – Even with some of their best players sitting on the bench in street clothes Sunday night, the Dallas
Mavericks hung pretty close to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Then came a pivotal stretch that lasted less than three minutes, but decided a game the Blazers won, 140-123, at the Moda Center. That’s when the Blazers went on a blistering 16-0 run to turn a three-point game into a 122-103 advantage with 7:13 remaining in the game.
From there, Portland coasted to the winner’s circle and went on to beat the Mavs by 17 points just like they did Saturday night (136-119).
“We fought longer than we did (Saturday), so that’s saying a lot about character,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Portland is a really good team.
“They jumped on us quickly in the fourth and that’s when they game got away.”
The game got away par
tly because the Mavs were without Luka Doncic (left ankle soreness), Tim Hardaway Jr. (left ankle sprain), Dorian Finney-Smith (right adductor strain), Josh Green (right elbow sprain) and Maxi Kleber (right hamstring tear). Thus, while short on manpower, that took an obvious toll on a Mavs’ team that was playing the last game of a five-game, nine-day road trip.
“Yeah, we ran out of bodies,” guard Spencer Dinwiddie said. “That was a real tough trip man, to put it lightly.
“But we don’t make any excuses. It’s always next man up. But we are looking forward to going home and getting some guys back and trying to start a win streak.”
The Mavs went a disappointing 1-4 on this road trip and will take a 24-21 record into Wednesday’s home game against the Atlanta Hawks.
“There could be some tired bodies, but no one is going to feel sorry for us,” Kidd said. “The games keep coming.
“As we get healthy here going forward, hopefully that helps us. But the schedule gets tougher and the teams do, too.”
After rookie guard Jaden Hardy grabbed the rebound on his own missed three-pointer and scored to get he Mavs within 106-103 of the Blazers with just under 10 minutes remaining, Portland promptly went on a 16-0 run and the Mavs never made a serious threat thereafter as Portland’s lead ballooned to as high as 26 points.
“I thought we played quicker tonight on a back-to-back,” Kidd said. “I thought Spencer was really, really good being able to control the game, but unfortunately they scored more points.
“But it comes down to our defense. We just got to give a little better effort, unless we’re just going to be an offensive team where we’re just going to try to score 140 every night.”
Dinwiddie led the Mavs with 28 points and nine assists, and Christian Wood collected 23 points and 16 rebounds. But it was the play of 
Hardy that thrilled the Mavs and got them to thinking what’s next for the 20-year old youngster from Las Vegas.
Hardy used his exceptional speed to dart in and out of traffic on his way to scoring a career-high 25 points on 8-of-17 shots in just 27 minutes of work.
“He was playing against a lot of their starters,” Kidd said. “We talked about putting him in position to be successful, and you can look at tonight being able to score the ball and help us on both ends.
“But I thought he was really, really good tonight. As we get healthy we’ll see how this affect his minutes, but he definitely needs minutes out there.”
The Mavs stayed within shouting distance of the Blazers for most of the game.
But the Mavs’ inability to contain Damian Lillard and his friends turned out to be the Mavs’ undoing. Lillard scored 40 points – he was 16-of-16 from the free throw line – and teammates Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic and Jerami Grant tallied 20 points apiece.
“Dame did his thing,” Dinwiddie said. “He got to free throw line several different times — and-ones and things of that nature. We didn’t do a good job of stopping him.
“For a majority of the game we had it within five points or so. Then they kind of stretched it out early in the fourth.”
With no Doncic to lean on, Dinwiddie mostly ran the offensive show, so he had to make sure other players were involved in the offense.
“Of course when I’m with Luka I’m more of a spot-up shooter, or obviously attacking on the second side, trying to be aggressive in certain movements, but also trying to move the ball,’” he said. “We had some continuity when I’m in there without LD.
“It’s more-so just trying to be downhill and being aggressive, breaking the paint. And like I said, more volumes goes way up. You see more free throws and more shots just in general and a couple of more assists than usual.”
Now the Mavs go home to open a three-game homestand, and to rest their weary bodies.
“We get to go home and we’ve got a homestand that we’ve got to take care of,” Kidd said. “We’ve got to protect home.
“For us, we thought this was going to be a good road trip for us to be able to improve our road record. But unfortunately, we ran into some teams that were playing well.”
Indeed, the Mavs, who are just 8-15 on the road, were not expecting this to be a road trip where they would come away with a losing record. Now they must regroup at home.
“Any time you string together losses, you’re always disappointed,” Dinwiddie said. “We’ve had enough people healthy, we’ve had enough talent on the floor to win.
“The games that we lost, we just couldn’t quite put it all together and that’s really unfortunate. And like I said, we’re not in the business of making excuses. No matter who sits and who plays, we have a puncher’s chance every night as we even did tonight.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
Share and comment