Trail Blazers Outlast Mavericks On Second Leg of Back To Back

Playing on the second night of a back-to-back, Portland came up big when it mattered most to beat Luka Doncic and Dallas.

Notes, analysis, observations and clips from the Trail Blazers 125-119 win over Dallas Mavericks on Friday night at Moda Center.

• C.J. McCollum looked like his pre-injury self on the second leg of a back-to-back, dropping 32 points and seven three-pointers while jabbing at the Mavericks all game long with quick pull-up threes and herky-jerky drives into off-dribble jumpers. He hadn't played 5-on-5 for over two months before returning to the lineup earlier this week, and it showed against the New Orleans Pelicans. Not on Friday. McCollum, of course, did lots of his damage as an isolation scorer, but even more encouraging for the Blazers were those times he took advantage of a defense selling out to stop Lillard. His crucial crunch-time three over the outstretched arms of Kristapos Porzingis came because Dallas ran an extra defender at Lillard, forcing rotations behind the play. Lillard playing at this level means he'll always create those winning numbers games, and there's no one on Portland's roster better suited to exploiting them than McCollum.

• The Mavericks' late-game offensive labors came almost out of nowhere. They were outscored 32-21 in a decisive fourth quarter, another foe cooling off in crunch-time against Portland's small-ball defense. The Blazers indeed picked up the defensive intensity late, making more precise, timely rotations and keeping their hands active for steals, deflections and tipped rebounds. Gary Trent Jr. was very disruptive during his fourth-quarter stint, while Rodney Hood earned his clutch minutes again with physicality on the glass and dogged defensive intensity. Still, this game very easily have gone the other way if Dallas had simply made a couple open jumpers in its final minutes. The Mavericks shot a hot 19-of-42 from three overall, but went just 3-of-11 from deep in the fourth quarter, missing multiple wide-open looks. 
• Lillard was the Blazers' engine on Friday night, and would've put up even bigger numbers if he hadn't hurt his knee in the third quarter. He even stayed in the game after Tim Hardaway Jr. landed on his left knee while diving for a loose ball, shrugging off the pain despite initially writhing in pain on the floor for an extended period. Lillard wasn't himself immediately after the injury; he clearly lacked his normal degree of burst and openly deferred to Hood and Carmelo Anthony. Lillard felt good enough in crunch-time for a pair of scores, a long two over Maxi Kleber and a swooping layup around Kristaps Porzingis. The Blazers supporting cast made sure they didn't need Lillard's heroics on Friday night. Good thing, too, because he might have been a bit too physically limited to provide them. Keep an eye on Lillard's left knee going forward, no matter what he or the team says publicly.

• Covington's numbers don't come close to doing his impact justice. On a night when Portland's collective defensive engagement sometimes proved fleeting, Covington set a consistent tone on that end of the floor that helped ensure his team would never go away. He pressured Luka Doncic in the backcourt, broke up a pocket pass while switching to the roll man and ripped the ball from Doncic in isolation as the Mavericks' superstar rose for a floater. True to season-long form, Covington took another shot to the face on Friday night, drawing an offensive foul by running stride for stride with a dribbling Hardaway in transition before challenging him at the rim. His 11 points on 10 shots belie the comfort Covington played with offensively, too. He made quick decisions as a shooter, screener, passer and driver from the opening tip, keeping the Blazers' offense moving. 
• Enes Kanter, to no one's surprise, was a major problem on defense. He was burned so badly off the bounce in isolation that Portland eventually did away with its strategy of switching Doncic ball screens, and Maxi Kleber got going from beyond the arc because Kanter proved too slow for even semi-effective contests on the perimeter. Facing the game's best players is always a reminder of just how limited Kanter is defensively. But he beasted at times on the other end, easily outmuscling Kleber on the block for multiple baskets and making a major impact on the offensive glass. Most of Kanter's minutes came with Doncic on the floor, an inevitable result of him starting at center. He's much easier protected defensively doing work against second units, though, the competition Kanter will most often face when Jusuf Nurkic is finally available.
• Can anyone explain the physics behind these mind-blowing dimes from Doncic? Well, other than appealing to Luka magic? Lillard was great on Friday even while hobbled, and McCollum never stopped attacking. Doncic was the best player on the floor in this game, though, and it wasn't all that close.

Next up: at home versus Dallas on Sunday, 7:00 p.m. (PST)