ESPN’s second game of the night will showcase a star-filled supernova as the Mavericks look to defend home court versus the road-trippin’ Portland Trail Blazers on their first night of a back-to-back, taking place at 9:30 p.m. ET. Portland is looking to make it 2-0 on the year in Dallas, after previously winning their last matchup on the road against Luka Doncic’s Mavs by a score of 121-119 back on October 27.
These Blazers are really trying to salvage what’s left of a season that’s spun into a tailspin at year’s beginning and if last night was any indication of what these Mavericks are in for tonight, this could be a really intriguing game to keep your eyes glued on for a couple of hours. Last night’s win over the Rockets inside the Toyota Center wasn’t quite the revenge victory Carmelo Anthony had in mind, but it was easily one of the signature wins for a Portland team that’s severely missed them, now six games under .500.
Damian Lillard’s 25 points and Melo’s efficient 18 points off a 70 percent shooting night clamped up league-leading scorer James Harden to what was probably his worst game this year at only 13 points off 3/12 shooting. The team effort was telling enough that this Blazers team, equally awash with all-star infrastructure and injuries to some of their most prominent pieces in Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins and others, is capable enough of righting the ship and supplanting the Blazers back in the playoff hunt. They’ll have the utmost opportunity to flex their potential against this Mavericks team that’s still without a completely healthy Kristaps Porzingis, finally upgraded to a game-time decision Friday afternoon.
Dallas didn’t quite finish off the Sacramento Kings last night, only beating their Western rivals by four via a 127-123 score as Doncic just so happened to follow protocol and drop another sick triple-double with 25 points, 15 rebounds and a stunning 17 assists, his career-high in dishes. For a team that’s so depleted in bigs, all will be even more difficult to coach around for Terry Stotts if Porzingis suits up and takes the floor since they’ll practically have no other answer to the 7-foot Lithuanian stretch big (other than Hassan Whiteside, maybe) that can destroy any defensive scheme both inside and outside of the paint.
Still, things are finally starting to come together for this Blazers backcourt, now at the No. 2 spot for the highest-scoring backcourts in the league. Tonight’s duel between Rick Carlisle’s vaunted backcourt composed of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Doncic versus Dame and CJ McCollum shouldn’t be anything short of an entertaining way to kick off the weekend, so be sure to grab your favorite beverage and snack, kick back and enjoy Blazers vs. Mavs at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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