Sunday marked the end of the Dallas Mavericks' toughest stretch of the season as they played 20 of 30 games on the road. They are 21-9 since Feb. 1, third best record in the league during that span. That is an impressive record, but the Mavericks had a tough pill to swallow as they suffered a 104-96 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in Portland. Shawn Marion led the Mavericks in the losing effort with 19 points and Rodrigue Beaubois added 18 points. Portland had six players in double figures and were led by Gerald Wallace with 19 points and eight rebounds.
The Blazers have now won five of the last eight meetings against the Mavericks. The teams split the season series, 2-2, and appear to be on a collision course to the meet in the first round of the playoffs. The road woes continued for Dallas as they hold an all-time record of just 18-46 in Portland.
The Mavericks have been held to under 100 points in five of their last six games, after they hit the century mark in 24 of their previous 28 contests. The Mavericks are 40-4 when they reach the century mark this season (compared to 13-20 when they score under 100 points). With 10 days left in the regular season, the Mavericks will have to regroup and re-establish their winning ways so they can get back on track before the playoffs begin.
Did THAT Just Happen?!
- Tyson Chandler missed his seventh game of the season as he sat out Sunday night's game against the Trail Blazers due to a lower back contusion that was sustained against the Golden State Warriors. He attempted to take a charge and landed hard on his back. Coach Rick Carlisle mentioned after the game against the Warriors was laboring and limping after the game was over. Sunday's game marked the fourth game Chandler missed due to injury (previous three were due to a sprained right ankle). The other three games Chandler missed during the season were due to illness. The Mavericks used their 20th different starting lineup of the season as they started Jason Kidd, Rodrigue Beaubois, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki and Brendan Haywood. Dallas used 18 different starting lineups last season.
- In the first half, foul trouble plagued the backcourt for the Mavericks. For example, Rodrigue Beaubois collected two fouls in the first 62 seconds of the game. Beaubois, Jason Terry and J.J. Barea all finished the first half with three fouls apiece. Barea and Beaubois were able to get going to an extent as they combined for 30 points (12 - Barea, 18- Beaubois). Jason Terry had another rough shooting night as he only scored four points.
- LaMarcus Aldridge (product of Seagoville High School in Dallas) came in averaging 31.0 points, 9.3 rebounds and shot 51.4% from the field in his previous three games against the Dallas Mavericks. He scored 10 points in the first quarter, but he finished the game with only 18 points and eight rebounds. Brendan Haywood did a decent job on Aldridge but it really didn't matter as Portland had other weapons working.
- For those who forgot, Brandon Roy had 21 points on 9-17 (53%) shooting in the previous game against the Mavericks. By far, the performance was his best since returning from arthroscopic surgery on both knees in January because of too little cartilage. It took Roy five games after that game to equal 21 points. In the nine games since last Mavs game, Roy has averaged 5.0 points while shooting 34.7% from the field. he finished the game with nine points on 3-9 (33%) shooting.
- Despite the defeat, it was a day of celebration for members of the Mavericks. DeShawn Stevenson celebrated his 30th birthday and Mavericks Director of Basketball Communications Sarah Melton (who is GREAT) celebrated her birthday on Sunday.
Box Score Revelations
- Dallas scored 29 points on 58% shooting in the second quarter, but the second quarter was not pretty for the Dallas D as they allowed 38 points to Portland. The 38 points tied their highest scoring quarter of the year with their second quarter performance. They shot 12-15 from the field in the second quarter. The Mavs trailed 61-46 at half. It's the biggest halftime deficit since Jan. 14 at San Antonio (57-42 then). The lone bright spot of the second quarter...our very own Travis Wimberly made a cameo appearance on the Dallas broadcast coming out of a timeout.
- Portland came into the game averaging 12.2 offensive rebounds/game, fourth best in the NBA. They had two offensive rebounds in the first half and finished the game with four offensive rebounds.
- As noted, Shawn Marion started the game against Portland after coming off the bench against Golden State. He finished the game with 19 points, five rebounds and one assist on 73% shooting from the field. In the previous 21 starts, Marion averaged 14.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists on 55.7% shooting from the field. In 53 games as a sub, Marion averaged 11.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists on 49.3% shooting from the field. Marion also drilled a three-point basket early in the third quarter, only his fifth made three-point basket of the season.
- Brendan Haywood did a relatively solid job filling in for Tyson Chandler. He finished the game with 5 points and 11 rebounds. The Mavericks fell to 6-1 when Haywood grabs at least 10 boards in a game.
- Dirk Nowitzki had a rough road trip and the trend continued in the game against Portland. He averaged 20.2 points on 41% shooting from the field in the first five games of the road trip. He finished the game with 16 points on 5-12 shooting (42%) from the field. A better late than never stat for Nowitzki, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau: Dirk Nowitzki eclipsed 1,500 points this season in the fourth quarter of the game against the L.A. Clippers on March 30. He has now gone 11 consecutive seasons with at least 1,500 points, which is tied with Kobe Bryant for the longest active streak in the NBA. Before 2010-11, no player had gone 11-plus consecutive seasons with at least 1,500 points since Karl Malone did it 12 years in a row from 1986-87 to 1997-98. So, the road trip wasn't a TOTAL loss for Nowitzki.
Tweetings From the Mavs Universe
- "Its playoff time homes, no more Mr. Nice Guy"
@MFollowill
- "I commend the whole Guard the Planet movement but can you please ALSO guard the Blazers?"
@KellieMVP
- "Right now, Barea is being everything Mavs fans hoped Roddy would be."
@annajao
- "Did the Mavs just decide to rest up for the playoffs and not tell us? What the heck?"
@jaymartin13
- "The only good news I can think of for the Mavs right now is their wives and kids still love them."
@espn_macmahon
BG's Baller of the Game:
Baller status has been granted to Shawn Marion. As noted earlier, Marion has been tossed around over the course of the season between being a starter or a reserve. No matter what the situation is, Marion has done everything he can to help the Mavericks out.
The Mavericks are now done with their longest road trip of the season. With a record of 3-3, the Mavericks came out looking like a team that was very eager to get home. Dallas will have two days off before playing the final five games of the regular season. The final five games will take place within a span of a week and four of the games will be at the American Airlines Center. The first game of a three-game homestand will begin on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets. Denver has won eight of the last 11 regular season meetings with Dallas. The Mavericks have gone 22-6 in the last 28 match-ups with the Nuggets at home, but Denver has taken four of the last six at American Airlines Center. The two teams split the home-and-home series on 11/3/10 and 11/6/10, with the road team winning each time. Arron Afflalo beat the buzzer to defeat the Mavericks, 121-120, in Denver on 2/10/11. The Nuggets closed the game on an 11-1 run en route to the win. This won’t be the same Nuggets team that everyone saw last time as the team has changed due to the Carmelo Anthony trade. The game on Wednesday between the Mavericks and the Nuggets will tip off at 7:30 pm CST.
Twitter? I don't even know her! Oh......
You can stay connected with all things Dallas Mavericks by following Bryan Gutierrez on twitter @BallinWithBryan