Mavs Blow Out Blazers: Our 3 Big Takeaways

With Luka Doncic still sidelined, the Dallas Mavericks handily defeated the Portland Trail Blazers. Here are our top takeaways.

The Dallas Mavericks pulled off a staggering 132-117 win over the Portland Trail Blazers during the NBA Monday night slate, and that 15-point margin of victory doesn’t tell the whole story of just how much of a blowout it was. 

Both teams were impacted by the NBA's health and safety protocols. The Mavericks were without Luka Doncic along with six total players while the Trail Blazers missed seven players and head coach Chauncey Billups.

Dallas got off to a hot start in this game—scoring a total of 72 points in the opening half. The Mavericks followed that up by adding another 34 points on the board in the third quarter. 

The Mavericks were up by as many as 29 points at one point in this matchup and held a 106-84 lead entering the fourth quarter. For the Trail Blazers, there was no coming back at that point. 

Both Kristaps Porzingis (34) and Dwight Powell (22) posted season-high scoring figures while the team finished with 38 assists. While Doncic did not play, the Mavericks certainly still got the job done. 

Let's take a look at three takeaways from the Mavericks' win over the Trail Blazers.

Ball Movement Is Key

There was a clear focus from the Mavericks to get the ball moving around the half-court. It showed in the results as they finished with a staggering 38 assists—doubling the Trail Blazers' output.

“I think even in our losses you can see this team is different,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “The ball moves, we’re competing, we’re playing for one another. It’s not my turn, your turn. And that’s just what a team does when you’ve got guys who are hungry to get back into the league.

Perhaps most intriguing of all was Josh Green's performance. He recorded a team-high 10 assists off the bench and showed some genuinely intriguing playmaking flashes. He accomplished both the simple and more dynamic plays at a high-level. 

Some of Green's more dynamic plays included a deep drive or aggressive cut to draw a help defender to create a dump-off pass to a relief option near the basket, or a deep kickout. Those are not typical sequences from a complementary player. 

"When I was younger, I used to be a point guard and just started growing," Green said. "When I moved over, I started moving to the wing spot. I think just playing international basketball, a lot of pick-and-rolls. I enjoy coming off pick-and-rolls and playing with a big. 

“I think just feeling the game and seeing what our team needs. We have KP, one of the best shooters in the NBA. And we have Dwight – a great roller. So I think I was just finding them and just doing what I can do and trying to get to the right spots, and just stuff I’ve been doing since I was a little kid.”

Other times, Green was simply executing a post entry pass or making an extra pass after receiving the ball from a kickout created by a teammate. While those don't crack the SportsCenter Top Ten, they are key. 

Without Doncic in the lineup, Brunson continued to be the primary initiator and he finished with nine assists of his own. He accomplished a balance of getting the ball to open shooters as well as drawing help on drives to get the ball to a play-finisher near the basket. 

Porzingis and Dorian Finney-Smith each registered five assists, too. Like most of the team, they did so by making it a point to move the ball when they drew multiple defenders while the unit as a whole was active finding cutting opportunities.  

Blazers Couldn't Guard A Traffic Cone

There are few teams around the NBA that have a less capable defense than the Trail Blazers. That was put on full display in this game. 

Without having to even think about slowing down Luka Doncic, the Trail Blazers still couldn't stop the Mavericks from getting into the paint. Dallas scored a staggering 68 points in the paint with Kristaps Porzingis (16) and Dwight Powell (16) outscored Portland (30) in this category alone. 

''In the paint, we had almost 70 points,'' Kidd said. ''I thought (Porzingis) let the ball come to him tonight, he didn't force anything. If they didn't double, he went to score and if they did he found the open guy. I thought his rhythm was great from start to finish.''

Some analysts felt that Larry Nance Jr. was going to be a steal for the Trail Blazers when he was acquired via trade this offseason. With Jusuf Nurkic sidelined, this was his chance to show he could thrive as a small-ball center but that experiment posted miserable results. 

“It’s not the result that we would have liked,” Trail Blazers acting head coach Scott Brooks said, via Aaron Fentress of Oregon Live. “I thought our guys competed. I thought we got a little down on ourselves when we weren’t making any threes in that first half. This is a very big team. They had a lot of size advantage. I thought we had a couple of opportunities to put a body on a body and didn’t. They got some confidence scoring down low in the paint.”

To be fair, it's not like Nurkic tends to do a fantastic job of anchoring the paint or guarding out in space, either. When pairing that with plenty of players who do not contain dribble penetration often, it's easy to see why Portland has a bad defense.

Entering this matchup, the Trail Blazers posted just a 112.5 defensive rating (27th) on the season. Only teams like the Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, and Charlotte Hornets rank lower. 

The Trail Blazers are in trouble. They are 2-8 in their last 10 games and only the Houston Rockets, who are at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, has been just as bad. 

KP Led Mavs’ Dominant First Half Offense

The Dallas Mavericks managed to score a staggering 72 points in the opening half while going 27-of-47 (57.4%) from the floor and 9-of-21 (42.9%) from the perimeter. A key part of that was the play of Kristaps Porzingis.

Porzingis led the Mavericks' offense in the opening half with a game-high 24 points. He did so while going 9-of-14 (62.3%) from the floor and 3-of-6 (50.0%) from deep. His perimeter shooting was particularly intriguing since he went 1-of-14 (7.1%) in his three previous outings. 

“I took a little bit more time than I usually do when I’m shooting them,” Porzingis said. “I got my body right and just let it fly, and that was it.

“I got a little arc on it and it goes in. No over-thinking. I just had that feeling that I’m going to make some shots. Now, consistency is what I’m looking for.”

The explosive first half of offense from the Mavericks proved to be enough as the Trail Blazers never managed to come within single-digits after halftime.

Porzingis finished his night with 34 points (season-high), nine rebounds, and five assists while chipping in a pair of steals and blocks to go along with.