Lillard On Fire for Trail Blazers
The Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers will battle on Thursday when they face-off at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Damian Lillard has been on absolute fire for the Trail Blazers and the Mavericks will have to find a way to slow him down.
TIME: 10:30 p.m. ET. TV: TNT, TSN4; LINE: Dallas -4.5; O/U: 229
Lillard looks to follow up his historic performance tonight. He broke his own franchise records with 61 points and 11 3-pointers during Monday’s 129-124 overtime win over the visiting Golden State Warriors. His old marks were 60 and 10, respectively.
Lillard became the sixth player in NBA history with multiple 60-point games. He joins Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain (32 times), Kobe Bryant (six), Michael Jordan (five), Elgin Baylor (four) plus current Houston Rockets star James Harden (four). “You kind of run out of adjectives for Damian and his performance,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters afterward. “The way he carried the team, not just on the court but in the huddles, timeouts, halftime, his leadership was great. You run out of adjectives, he’s an amazing player.”
Dallas has its own stellar player in guard Luka Doncic. He made a career-best eight 3-pointers put up a stat line that read 35 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. The Mavericks posted a 120-112 home win over the Trail Blazers last Friday. Doncic has 12 triple-doubles this season and narrowly missed one Tuesday with 36 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Dallas suffered a 110-107 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
This, That, and a Dart Throw
The Mavericks are 27-16 on the season. Dwight Powell was lost for the season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon. He fell to the court untouched during Tuesday’s game and his surgical options are being discussed according to the team. Powell was averaging 14.4 points per game. He was warming up and was shooting 78.3 percent from the field (47-of-60) over the previous eight games. His role increased due to a knee injury to power forward Kristaps Porzingis, who had just 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting on Tuesday after missing the previous 10 games.
“If I played just a little bit better, we would have won the game,” Porzingis told the media afterward. “This loss is on me. That’s how I feel. I know it’s my first game back but I have high expectations for myself and I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to shoot the ball better.”
The Trail Blazers are 19-26 overall on the season. Lillard appreciated his record-setting performance – “I guess if somebody’s going to beat my record, it’s good to be me,” he said. He is not so thrilled about the club being so far below .500 past the midway point of the season. “Anything I’m a part of, I always think it’s a chance. It’s as simple as that,” Lillard told reporters of a possible turnaround. “You show that belief with your actions and your body language and your attitude all the time, so it’s not like I was having a good game (Monday night) so everybody believed because I believed.”
Lillard had 34 points and 10 rebounds in the recent loss to Dallas. It was a contest in which C.J. McCollum injured his ankle and the shooting guard could miss his third straight game. Center Hassan Whiteside rang up 17 points, 21 rebounds and six blocked shots against Golden State and has five 20-rebound efforts this season.
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The Dart Throw: Mavericks 124, Trail Blazers 118
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The Dart Throw: Mavericks 124, Trail Blazers 118
NBA on TNT Trends
Portland Trail Blazers
- Trend Over is 6-2 in Trail Blazers last 8 games as a home underdog of 5.0-10.5. Hit % 75.00% (8) O/U 6|2 Push 0 W/L
- Over is 4-1 in Trail Blazers last 5 games as an underdog of 11.0 or greater. 80.00% (5) 4|1 0
- Over is 6-2 in Trail Blazers last 8 games as a favorite of 11.0 or greater. 75.00% (8) 6|2 0
- Over is 5-2 in Trail Blazers last 7 games as a home favorite. 71.40% (7) 5|2 0
Dallas Mavericks
- Trend Over is 16-5 in Mavericks last 21 games as a favorite of 5.0-10.5. Hit % 76.20% (21) O/U 16|5 Push 0 W/L
- Under is 4-0 in Mavericks last 4 games as an underdog of 11.0 or greater. 100.00% (4) 4|1 0
- Under is 4-0 in Mavericks last 4 games as a road underdog of 11.0 or greater. 100.00% (4) 0|4 0
- Under is 5-2 in Mavericks last 7 games as a favorite of 0.5-4.5. 71.40% (7) 2|5 0
Mavericks vs Trail Blazers H2H Meeting Trends
- Trend Over is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings in Portland. Hit % 100.00% (4) O/U 4|0 Push 0 W/L
- Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings. 80.00% (5) 4|1 0
- Mavericks are 20-7 ATS in the last 27 meetings. 74.10% (27) 0 20|7
- Mavericks are 6-1 ATS in the last 7 meetings in Portland. 85.70% (7) 0 6|1
Stats brought to you by Scores&Stats
Next up:
Dallas at Utah Saturday, January 25
Portland home to Indiana Sunday, January 26
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