For game two of Thursday’s TNT doubleheader, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks head up to the Pacific Northwest to better their 27-16 record by a game against the slipping Portland Trail Blazers, who are now a full seven games under .500 with a 19-16 record at 10:30 p.m. on TNT.
Fresh off topping his own franchise record for points in a game, Damian Lillard’s 61 points against the Warriors in an OT win back on MLK Day this past Monday was just something of lore, you’d have sworn if you witnessed it in person. Hassan Whiteside pitched in with a double-double of a 17-point, 21 rebound contribution, lessening a bit of Lillard’s workload from carrying the team to their 19th win.
It’s been numerous times that Dame looks as if he’s the only driving force behind this Blazers team that’s in sniffing distance to a first-round playoff visit with their loss margin only being in the single digits. And fortunately, Lillard’s contributions have not been ignored, according to the Blazers’ free-agent activity in the past few days.
Bench depth has been a sore spot for Portland, but a key acquisition by the name of Trevor Ariza could be the mending bandage that’ll hold until Portland is at least able to get some of their forwards back into Terry Stotts’ rotation. Injuries have been the name of all of Portland’s issues this season, and apparently, with one gaze at the injury report for this game, they aren’t getting better anytime soon.
CJ McCollum’s is out, as Lillard’s backcourt accomplice suffering an ankle injury in the loss to this Mavericks team last week and without him, the task to keep up the momentum built up from Monday’s win is possible, but a lot more difficult as Lillard will have to rely on the combination of Anfernee Simons (9.4 ppg., 2.6 rpg., 1.5 apg. as a rookie) Gary Trent Jr., and Mario Hezonja to supply some help.
As it goes for the Mavericks who sit at 27-16, they’re winners of four of their last six, with two of those losses coming by way of the Clippers, and tonight’s opponent the Trail Blazers. They’re not injury-abstinent either, for it’ll be up to Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle to concoct some new rotations in the wake of Dwight Powell going down with a season-ending Achilles tear in Tuesday’s loss to the Clippers, which is obviously going to be a big blow for a team that’s destined to compete in this year’s playoffs.
Now selected as an All-Star for the first time, Mavericks superstar guard Luka Doncic dropped 36 points, snagged 10 rebounds and dished out 9 assists in a near triple-double effort in the loss to LAC. Replicating what Powell brought to Dallas on a nightly occurrence (9.4 ppg. off 63.8 percent shooting) with the tandem of Maxi Kleiber and others is a tall task to ask for, but given the circumstance of Portland’s lack of depth when it comes to size down low, Dallas feels they should fare just fine in spacing the floor on both levels so their backcourt rotation composed of Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Seth Curry, and Dorian Finney-Smith can get theirs as well.
This rematch between two likely playoff teams (if the Blazers can get healthy and over the .500 mark first – small steps are important, too) should be a fun one, as injury, ailment and all hasn’t seemed to slow down Damian Lillard from touching at least 30 points per contest yet. Expect to see some fireworks with two of the league’s most offensively-gifted players battling it out for four quarters on TNT, soon after the Lakers and Nets game concludes.
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