The Dallas Mavericks (12-22) let a winnable game slip away against the Portland Trail Blazers (14-19) on Monday at Moda Center, 125-122, in the team’s second game in a row without Anthony Davis in the lineup. Deni Avdija led all scorers with 27 points in the win and came up just one rebound shy of a triple-double. Shaedon Sharpe and Caleb Love added 24 points apiece. Cormac Karl “Max” Christie led Dallas with 25 points in the loss.
This one was downright ugly until it got interesting in the fourth
quarter. Here are five stats that tell the tale of the Mavericks’ fifth loss in their last seven games and their sixth straight on the road.
3: Toumani Camara 3-pointers in game’s first five minutes
Toumani Camara not only locked up Cooper Flagg to start the game — he did his best to add the “3” to his widely heralded “D”-fensive reputation in the game’s opening minutes, too. Camara scored nine points on 3-of-3 shooting from 3-point range in the game’s first 4:53 to force an early timeout from Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd.
After his third capped a quick 8-0 Portland run to give the Blazers a 16-9 lead, Avdija took over from there. he sliced through the lane midway through the first, shedding Naji Marshall for a contested finger roll to give Portland a 21-11 lead and followed it up a minute later with a runner in the lane to make it 25-16 with 4:53 left in the opener. Avdija and Camara combined to score 20 points in the first as the Blazers clubbed the Mavericks about the head and body for a 42-29 lead after one.
30-17: Portland’s first-quarter advantage in shot attempts
Portland made 16 shots in the first quarter (on 30 attempts). The Mavericks attempted 17 shots. The Blazers grabbed six offensive rebounds in the first quarter. Dallas didn’t record any of those. Portland hit seven 3-pointers in the opening quarter. The Mavs attempted eight, which is an improvement from their last handful of games.
The math wasn’t working out early on for your Fightin’ Mavs, and the returns were downright ugly. Dallas has been out-mathed in most of their losses this season. It’s hard to identify a single glaring culprit on nights when everything that can go wrong does go wrong, but the short answer throughout the first half on Monday was the Mavs’ flimsy defensive effort.
12-of-22: Blazers’ first-half 3-point shooting
On the second night of a back-to-back set, a night after gutting out a win over the Boston Celtics, the Blazers were scorching hot from distance in the first half against the Mavericks. After Camara’s hot start to the game, Portland spread the wealth from beyond the arc in the second quarter. Caleb Love, Sidy Cissoko and even big man Donovan Clingan got into the act from deep after the Mavs cut Portland’s lead to nine, 66-57, after Naji Marshall’s bucket inside with less than two minutes left before halftime.
The Blazers missed three straight 3-point attempts in the final minute of the half and still finished 12-of-22 (54.5%) to take a 75-63 lead into the break. Portland outscored the Mavs from 3-point land 36-12 in the first half on Monday. Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe led all scorers with 16 points apiece at halftime, and the pair combined for 13 first-half assists as well. Cormac Karl “Max” Christie led the Mavericks with 14 points at the break.
13-2: Mavericks’ run stretching from late third to early fourth
The Mavs did a lot of hanging around in the third quarter behind a much friskier defensive effort coming out of halftime. Dallas held Portland to 22 points in the third quarter, perhaps helped by some tired legs on the second night of the Blazers’ back-to-back set.
Marshall hit on a 3-pointer near the top of the key with 40 seconds left in the third quarter on a find from Klay Thompson that pulled the Mavericks to within 97-89. Marshall split a pair of free throws the next time down, before Thompson heaved a desperate leaning 3-ball as time expired in the frame to cut the Portland lead to four going into the fourth quarter.
Thompson was just 1-of-6 from 3-point range before banking that one in at the third quarter buzzer. Dallas made it a 10-0 run on Thompson’s pull-up jumper near the free throw line with 10:40 left in the game, and all of a sudden, the Mavs were back within one, down just 97-96 at the time. Thompson would bang in his third 3-pointer of the game a minute or so later to tie the game at 99-99. It may have been the quietest 13-2 run of the year, but it set the Mavs up for yet another clutch game opportunity against the Blazers.
6: Mavericks’ scorers to reach double figures
In the first quarter, Daniel Gafford provided an unexpected early offensive lift with 10 points to start the game. In the second quarter, it was Christie and Brandon Williams. In the third, it was Williams and Thompson. Minus Anthony Davis, who sat out a second straight game with an adductor strain, and with Flagg firing on half his cylinders at times, Dallas needed all hands on deck to make things interesting down the stretch.
Williams led the Mavs with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting in the loss. Christie put up 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Marshall and Gafford each chipped in 17. Thompson had 14 on 3-of-10 shooting from distance and drilled a couple of those in key moments in the game, but came up empty on a contested 3-pointer from the left wing that would have tied the game as the fourth-quarter buzzer sounded.
Flagg shot just 6-of-20 from the floor but made some plays on the defensive end and still contributed 15 points in the loss. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re on Team Tank), Advija and Love combined for 12 of the Trail Blazers’ final 14 points in the game’s final five minutes to keep the game just out of reach for Dallas down the stretch.
