Mavs-Blazers primer: Defense key to pumping up home record

The Mavericks are hoping to accomplish a lot during the seven-game home stand that continues Friday with Game No. 2 against the Portland Trail Blazers.

But the two most important things on their to-do list are to pad a lukewarm home record and keep inching up the ladder in defensive efficiency.

In regard to their total defense, Wednesday’s 29-point win over the Blazers at American Airlines Center was a step in the right direction. The Mavericks forced eight turnovers in the first quarter, 14 for the first half and 22 for the game. That set a great tone and led to just the second game this season when the Mavericks have kept an opponent under 100 points.

Admittedly, it doesn’t happen very often in the NBA these days.

“Deflections, we were active,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Everyone had deflections or were coming up with steals. (Anfernee) Simons is a tough cover and trying to make it tough on him. It’s not easy to stay in front of Simons because he can go either way, and his range is deep. I thought the guys did a really good job.”

Simons is the cornerstone that the Blazers are rebuilding on. He averages 26.1 points, but has played only 12 games because of various injuries.

The Mavericks are hoping to keep him under wraps for one more game.

Efforts like Wednesday’s make a big difference in a team’s defensive ratings. The Mavericks have crept up to 21^st in the league in overall rating defensively.

That’s up a few pegs from where they’ve been most of the season.

Getting healthy should have an impact on that. Kyrie Irving has been back for two games and looked far more comfortable on Wednesday than he did in his first game back Monday in Utah.

“Twenty-four days, man, that’s a long amount of time in the NBA season to miss games, especially when I felt like I was in a great rhythm before that (heel injury) happened,” Irving said.

“I played one pickup game, and then two days later I was in an NBA game. My foot (Wednesday) was feeling great.”

The Mavericks will be sweating out the availability of center Dereck Lively II and Grant Williams. Both suffered what were described as “mild” ankle sprains in Wednesday’s meeting with the Blazers and left the game.

Both are listed as questionable for Friday’s game.

The Mavericks are 9-7 at home this season and this two-week stay with home cooking is the perfect chance to improve that mark.

Being healthy would certainly make that a bit easier.

Here’s what else to look for in the rematch with the Blazers.

• This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams in the last 29 days and the last one of the 2023-24 season. The Mavericks are going for the sweep.
• The Mavericks have gone 5-7 since their 15-8 start to the season, but they did start off this season-long seven game home stand with a 29-point win over the Blazers on Wednesday.
• The Blazers have been without center Deandre Ayton (knee) for the past five games.
• The Mavericks are 9-7 this season when either Kyrie Irving or Luka Dončić misses a game and 0-3 when both are out. They are coming off the Wednesday game in which they combined for 70 points, 41 from Luka, 29 from Kyrie.
• Second-year guard Jaden Hardy has seen more action of late, averaging 21.5 minutes per game over the last four. In that span, he’s averaged 13.5 points and shot 10-of-28 (.357) from three-point range.

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (9-24) at MAVERICKS (20-15)

• When/where: 7:30 p.m. Friday, American Airlines Center, Dallas.
• TV: Bally’s Sports Southwest.
• Radio: 97.1 FM The Freak; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish).

X: @ESefko