Mavericks vs Blazers Preview: Dallas visits Portland for two games in a row

The Dallas Mavericks (24-19) continue their long West coast road trip where they play the Portland Trailblazers (19-22) on Saturday night. It’s the first of a pair of games there in Portland. Dallas is coming off a tough double overtime victory of the Los Angeles Lakers where all the starters played a ton of minutes. Portland is in the middle of a five game losing streak and they’ve only won three games period since December 15th. As these two teams play again tomorrow night (with an even earlier start time for some reason), hopefully the Mavericks run away with this one early. Here’s the main details.

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks at Portland Trailblazers
• WHAT: The first of a two game series against the Blazers
• WHERE: Moda Center, Portland Oregon
• WHEN: 9:00 p.m. CST
• HOW: BallySports Southwest

As far as injuries, would it shock you to know that Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Green are out again? They are and it’s not entirely surprising, just because I never expect them to play again, but also because if they were to play, it would either be tonight or tomorrow night but not both. Christian Wood is questionable as of this writing, but I have a feeling he plays. UPDATE: He’s been ruled out.

For the Blazers, Nassir Little is still out with his long term injury and Justice Winslow is out as well with an ankle sprain. Damian Lilliard is also listed as questionable but he’s one guy that seems to never miss games unless he’s seriously hurt.

Watch for some sluggishness from the Mavericks after that intense game Thursday. Hopefully someone steps up and makes big plays (Looking at you Jaden Hardy!) as Dallas needs some one to be a surprise contributor. We’ll be back after the game with out usual posts. Thanks for hanging out! Go Mavs.