Mavs Game Observations: Game 21 @ Trail Blazers

Mavericks keep finding new ways to keep winning

Photo by Soobum Im / Getty Images

Sometimes you have to win ugly. And once you do, those wins suddenly look beautiful.

I wrote this after the Mavericks won in Atlanta last week, and this 137-131 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers felt like the same game—just with a different cast.

Like in Atlanta, the Mavericks were playing on the road on the second night of a back-to-back. Like in Atlanta, the team was undermanned. This time, they were without Kyrie Irving, two other starters in Dereck Lively II and Klay Thompson, and their sixth man and key sub, Naji Marshall. And like in Atlanta, the Mavericks won a shootout, this time against a frisky, young, and athletic Blazers team that shot the lights out and had won their previous four home games.

(No) defense was the ugly part last night, but the way these Mavericks keep finding ways to win is the beautiful. Dallas claimed their eighth victory in their last nine games, improving to 13-8 on the season after starting 5-7.

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Today’s notes:

1. Getting into another saloon shootout and getting out alive

2. Multiple teams, multiple ways to win

3. Luka back, and back to old dominating self

4. Guard-to-guard manipulation (🎞️VIDEO)

5. Dinwiddie and Grimes carry on with their 20-point nights 📈

Bonus point: lack of bodies and defense

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1-Getting into another saloon shootout and getting out alive

If the shootout in Atlanta was High Noon—tense and dramatic—this one was the O.K. Corral, with chaos breaking loose and shots flying everywhere.

Luka Dončić, back after missing previous games, went on a flurry in the second quarter, scoring 15 points without missing a shot (6/6).

Anfernee Simons topped that with a scorching third quarter, pouring in 24 points on 8-of-9 shooting, pulling up from three everywhere and firing at the first possible opportunity.

As a sequel to that, Spencer Dinwiddie closed the show in the fourth, scoring 14 points and, like Simons, missing only one shot in the process.

The Mavericks made 18 threes, shooting 50% from beyond the arc. The Blazers matched that three-point total on five fewer attempts, with an otherworldly 58% accuracy. Portland's 69% effective field-goal percentage was the highest of any Mavericks opponent this season by a wide margin and the sixth-best among all 606 games played so far this season. Remarkably, the Mavericks managed to win despite this, making them the only team to defeat an opponent shooting at that level (the other five teams to reach 69% all won).

2-Multiple teams, multiple ways to win

So, how did the Mavericks manage to win a game where the opponent was scorching hot and scored 131 points?

If I quote Jason Kidd the Mavericks have multiple teams right now.

It's a testament to the depth of this roster that they can morph into different shapes on a night-to-night basis. One night, you roll out a long, switch-heavy, defensive-minded lineup and put the clamps on the league's best offensive team, as they did against the Knicks in the first half. On another night, your defensive backbone is missing, and you have to go all-offense with guard-heavy lineups.

Injuries and absences have forced Kidd to switch between different modes on a night-to-night basis. The frustrating part is waiting for the team to get healthy, build chemistry, and become the 'one' team Kidd envisions. However, the ability to juggle styles and lineups while still piling up wins is a refreshing change compared to the less versatile and less talented Mavericks teams of the past.

3-Luka back, and back to old dominating self

In the micro view, this game could be just one of 82—a hard-fought win the Mavericks managed to steal. But if it also marked Dončić’s return to the lineup after a five-game absence and his resurgence to the dominant form we’ve grown so accustomed to in the past—yet missed earlier this season—then its significance might extend far beyond just another win.

After a rough first stint where Dončić went 2-of-7 from the floor and committed 2 turnovers in the opening period, the Slovenian superstar turned it around, making 13 of his final 17 shots. He finished the game with an impressive 36 points, 13 assists, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals.

His 15-point scoring outburst in the second quarter against a switching and drop defense forced Chauncey Billups to trap Dončić for the remainder of the game. As a result, Portland was left playing catch-up, and even their 133 points weren’t enough to overcome the Mavericks in a cat-and-mouse, 4-on-3 game against one of the league's best trap manipulators, on a night when the Mavericks’ role players had a great shooting night from beyond the arc.

4-Guard-to-guard manipulation (🎞️VIDEO)