No one wanted to win Friday’s game between the visiting Dallas Mavericks (24-50) Portland Trail Blazers (37-38) at Moda Center, but eventually someone had to. The Mavericks pulled the unlikely 100-93 win out of their hat amidst 16 combined fourth-quarter turnovers as the game got sloppier and sloppier down the stretch.
Cooper Flagg had 24 points and four steals in the win but scored just four of those after halftime. Marvin Bagley III notched a new season-high scoring mark with 26 points and nine
rebounds to lead the Mavericks to victory off the bench. Bagley also helped limit Portland big man Donoval Clingan to just 2-of-9 shooting on the defensive win. Jrue Holliday led the Blazers with 23 points in the loss.
The Dwight Powell to Cooper Flagg connection was in full effect from the moment the ball was tipped. Flagg made a clever little back cut on the Mavericks’ second possession of the game and Powell got it right to him for an easy hoop to start the game. The next time down, Powell was on the receiving end of a pick-and-roll run to perfection between himself and Max Christie, and the Mavs were up 4-0 less than two minutes into the game.
Flagg scored six points in the game’s first four minutes on three makes in his first four attempts from the floor, including a running dunk in transition on a quick outlet pass from Naji Marshall. His incredible versatility at age 19 has been on display since the All-Star break and his return from a foot injury, when he’s become the only player in the NBA to average more than 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block per game.
His closely contested up-and-under move midway through the first quarter tied the game, 14-14, for his fourth make. Two possessions later, Flagg found Bagley for a runner in the lane to give Dallas a 16-14 lead. Bagley scored on the offensive glass the next time down to put the Mavs back in front, 18-16. Christie and Klay Thompson knocked down the Mavericks’ first two 3-pointers on the next two possessions to extend their lead to double digits, up 26-16, and force a timeout by Blazers acting head coach Tiago Splitter with 3:09 left in the first.
Thompson’s first-quarter 3-ball put him at 174 made from distance off the bench this season, surpassing a Mavericks’ team record set two years ago by Tim Hardaway Jr.
Bagley was a menace for the Mavs as Dallas scored 20 paint points in the first quarter. He turned down a 3-point attempt for an open driving lane and a vicious slam to give him 11 points in the opening stanza and put Dallas ahead 32-22 with 57 seconds remaining. It was Bagley’s highest-scoring quarter of the 2025-26 season, and he did it on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
Flagg picked up right where he left off in the second. He scored on an unstoppable drive in transition with 9:10 left before halftime to put the Mavs up 35-28, then nailed a jumper and the ensuing free throw on a 3-point play the next time down. He scored on another jumper through contact two possessions later to give the Mavericks a 40-30 edge with 8:15 left in the second. His athleticism and killer instinct are joys to watch as he sharpens his many knives late in his rookie campaign.
The Mavs continued to pour it on in the second, more than doubling up Portland in paint points through the game’s first 20 minutes, before coming back to earth a little bit in the final four minutes of the frame. Flagg piled up 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the first half, and the Mavericks took a 56-51 lead into the break. Portland outscored the Mavs 14-2 to end the second half, as Dallas shot 0-for-6 in the final 4:18 of the second quarter and turned the ball over three times.
The Blazers took their first lead of the game since early in the first quarter with 7:55 left in the third, 66-64, on Toumani Camara’s putback of his own missed airball, which should have been called a travel but was not. Portland outscored the Mavericks 27-12 in that nine-plus minute stretch that started with just over four minutes left in the second.
Bagley scored his first points since that 11-point first quarter on a corner 3-pointer in response to put the Mavericks back in front, 67-66, the next time down. His shooting touch has been a pleasant surprise since he arrived in Dallas in a deadline-day deal that sent Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards in February. Bagley’s putback the next time down put him at 16 points and seven rebounds midway through the third, and he hit a turnaround to make it a person 7-0 run with 5:20 left in the third. Dallas led 71-66 at that point.
Bagley hit his third 3-ball of the game from near the top of the key with 2:31 left in the third to give the Mavs a 76-70 edge, getting to within one point of his season-high scoring mark of 22 points with a quarter still to play. He appeared to hurt his arm while setting a screen the next time down the floor. Dallas limped into the fourth holding onto a 79-76 lead.
The fourth quarter was downright ugly, as Portland turned the ball over four times in the first four minutes, allowing the Mavs to build the lead back up to seven points. Neither team built much momentum until Flagg leaked out in transition and received an over-the-shoulder pass from Ryan Nembhard for a quick slam to put Dallas up 85-78 and force a Portland timeout with 6:40 to play.
Flagg and Bagley: The post-Duke effect
Is it just pure coincidence that both Flagg and Bagley had strong performances after their Duke Blue Devils outlasted the St. John’s Red Storm earlier in the evening in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 to get to the team’s third-straight Elite 8?
Flagg, of course, was part of the Duke team that bowed out last year in the Final Four. He played in 37 games for the Blue Devils, scoring 19.2 points, pulling down 7.5 rebounds and shooting 38.5% from 3-point range in his only college season. Bagley played 33 games for Duke during the 2017-18 season, averaging 21 points, 11 boards and shooting better than 39% from 3-point land as the team reached the Elite 8 that year.
The Mavericks whose college teams are still alive in this year’s NCAA Tournament have been sporting their college colors in pre-game shootarounds. As of Friday night, Brandon Williams, who played at Arizona, is the only other Maverick whose college team is still alive. His Wildcats beat Daniel Gafford’s Arkansas Razorbacks on Thursday, 109-88 in a Sweet 16 matchup.
Mavs offense: Good, then bad, then just good enough
The Mavericks have been quietly humming on offense in their last five games. Dallas had scored at least 120 points in regulation in each of their last four games coming into Friday’s game in Portland, and shot 13-of-25 (52%) from the field in the first quarter at Portland.
Flagg was the initiator early on before Bagley led the bench unit to a strong close to the first. The Mavs were making hay off Blazers turnovers to help build their early lead, taking a 12-1 scoring advantage off opponent miscues in the opener. It’s made for some unexpectedly exciting basketball as we trudge through the March doldrums in a lost season.
All it takes is one bad stretch to hand it all back, though, and that’s what we saw to end the first half on Friday. The Blazers, who are in the thick of the battle for Western Conference play-in positioning, went on a 14-2 run to end the first half and climb back into the game.
But Dallas had an answer each time the Blazers threatened. Bagley was a big part of that, and so was Flagg, but Portland’s penchant for giving the ball away at the worst moments on Friday was the biggest culprit. The Blazers coughed it up 24 times on Friday in the loss.
It had to happen sometime
Finally, a clutch win. Flagg made the little plays the Mavericks needed down the stretch, while Bagley made the two biggest buckets of the game after Portland went on a little 7-0 run to tie the game at 92-92 on Holliday’s third 3-pointer of the game with 2:25 left to play.
Brandon Williams found Bagley on a cut underneath the basket to break the tie with 2:04 left in the game, and then Williams’ fifth assist of the game found Bagley, who scored on a dunk after a pump fake in close with 40 seconds on the clock to put Dallas up 96-92.
The Mavs have been cheeks in clutch games all year. They had to win a close one at some point. And with seemingly every game going down to the wire, the Mavericks made just enough plays down the stretch to beat a Blazers team that turned the ball over 24 times and missed 10 free throws on their home floor.
