On the back of a brilliant offensive performance by their defensive duo Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, the Trail Blazers were able to overtake the Dallas Mavericks on their way to the 125-119 victory. This is a phrase that Portland fans have waited a long time to hear again. The two guards added 63 points, including a flurry of big shots in the final stretch to help the Blazers – now winners of six of the last eight points – win a prime time victory.
The victory helps the Blazers to keep pace with the Denver Nuggets for fifth place in the West. If you missed Dave Deckard’s instant recap of this wildly amusing confrontation, here’s the link to it. And here are four more important conclusions from tonight’s victory.
Call it a coincidence if you like, but on a night dominated by anonymous March Madness heroes and Cinderella stories, it only made sense that CJ McCollum looked terribly like that agile young sniper who put the world on alert like Lehigh Mountain Hawk almost a year ago. decade.
The talented goalkeeper struggled with touch in the first two games of the return, hitting just 6 of 27 on the field. Friday night provided McCollum of old with SportsCenter-style dribbling combinations and, above all, buckets in buckets.
These McCollum photos were especially critical tonight, given the knee injury that Damian Lillard suffered at the end of the third quarter, when Josh Richardson landed on his leg. Lillard has returned, but the Blazers’ offensive fights without him are well documented – Portland scores 13.6 points less for 100 possessions without Dame, the NBA’s fifth-largest brand – so having McCollum as an escape valve was key. That he did it with the two skinny defenders from Dallas and that he gave Portland that boost in the fourth quarter, both proved beneficial. McCollum finished with 32 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds on 11 of 23 and six points of 3. Together, he and Lillard combined 63 points. Every bit of it was necessary.
For the first 23 seconds of the Mavericks-Blazers game, it looked like fans could be treated with a brave and defensive slugfest of a game. THE next 47 and a half minutes it served as proof that it would be anything but that.
One night, after catching the talented New Orleans Pelicans with 93 points, the lowest of the season, the Blazers readily saw Dallas surpass that total by three quarters.
The recipe for these defensive failures was familiar: lack of effort in getting things right, inability to defend without fail and lack of adjustment. Luka Doncic’s 38-point night full of jumpers was to be expected, but the Blazers’ defense in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Maxi Kleber was more worrying. Hardaway worked his normal bag of tricks, using Iverson cuts, off-the-ball cunning in off-field games, and Doncic’s gravity to open, and Kleber exposed Portland’s fatal flaw in coverage falls by staying on the perimeter. Together, the two fell 11 points out of 3, with Dallas hitting 19 as a team.
It should be noted that, essentially for the fourth time this week, the Blazers closed down when it mattered most. With the game at risk, your defense has become useful. This played a key role in his 19-9 run to end it.
If you felt a gust of wind in the Oregon area an hour ago, this may have been just the collective sigh among Blazers fans, seeing Lillard clench his teeth again to play the hero in another scare of potential injury. As noted, Lillard and Mavericks guard Josh Richardson became entangled in a collision fighting over the ball when Lillard injured his knee.
Lillard, always the gladiator, left with his own strength and continued to play, although it initially seemed that he did not have that passing speed. The story had a happy ending; Lillard landed clutch shots at the end of the straight and again put him in a clinic to punish the Mavericks’ defense with his big strayers so far. It wasn’t quite the 61-point game from last season’s bubble game, but it was just as important.
Being a fan of Blazers means being equipped with extra stress, especially when players hit the ground and are slow to get up. This is only part of the terms and conditions when you sign the contract. This year’s Blazers seem to make being hit in the face or on the ground a nighttime occurrence. There was a period in this game when Porzingis hit different Blazers in attempts to kick with the arm, accumulating faults in a comical rhythm. There are enough nose shots and Sweet Chin Music to make the great Shawn Michaels proud. Fortunately, Blazers continue to advance.
Lillard and McCollum command the top fold of any story in the game tonight, but what the paper players of the Blazers were able to do deserves a note. It might be a smart idea for someone to check out Carmelo Anthony’s story on YouTube. He took some AND1 moves to get into his 3 points, and they gave this team a boost off the bench.
It wasn’t his best game as a bidirectional force on the defensive end, but Anthony remains an effective spacer, helping to divert Lillard’s attention when they share the ground. He came to this game with an average of 4.8 assists in his last four, and he had some important moves to guarantee victory.
You can go below the line: Derrick Jones Jr. and Robert Covington provided important moves, and Covington essentially hit the winner at the right baseline. Enes Kanter gave Porzingis a showcase for what the 7 feet do in the low block, and Gary Trent Jr. – for all the shooting fights he had recently – kept the Blazers afloat with crucial buckets to start the room. On a night when the Blazers’ stars prevailed, the supporting cast certainly had its moments, too.
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Family enemies unite again, as the Blazers prepare to fight the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night at 7pm PT.