Trail Blazers at Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are one of four winless in the teams in the NBA and they look to end their season-opening funk when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. Dallas established a season low for points in Wednesday’s 97-81 loss to the Utah Jazz and coach Rick Carlisle is already pondering making changes to the rotation.
Power forward Dirk Nowitzki returned from a two-game absence due to illness and Achilles’ tendon issues and had just nine points on 4-of-14 shooting in the humbling defeat. "It's frickin' four games in,” Nowitzki said afterward. “You've just got to keep battling and then stop the bleeding at home. We know we have two tough teams (Portland and Milwaukee) coming in, tough matchups, but we've got to stop the bleeding.” Portland opened a three-game road swing with a tough 118-115 overtime loss in Phoenix when Suns guard Eric Bledsoe hit a rainbow 3-pointer at the buzzer. "I really liked our effort in the second half, I liked the fact that we continued to keep ourselves in the game," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said afterward. "Bledsoe hit a great shot, a great shot. Hat's off to him."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (2-3): Portland held a seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter against Phoenix but wilted and needed a buzzer-beating layup by power forward Meyers Leonard to avoid losing in regulation prior to Bledsoe’s overtime winner. “I'll take that (last) shot every day of the week,” shooting guard C.J. McCollum told reporters of Bledsoe’s high-arching shot. “When you’re up six or seven, you’ve got to put them away. I think it’s a learning experience.” Point guard Damian Lillard continues to play superb basketball and had 27 points against the Suns, and his 163 points are the most through five games in franchise history.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (0-4): Dallas scored just 33 first-half points in the loss to Utah, and the 14 points scored by small forward Harrison Barnes was good enough to lead the squad. The Mavericks never expected to be winless entering their fifth contest and new center Andrew Bogut arrived from a squad (Golden State) that lost just nine games during the 2015-16 regular season. “It’s been a tough start for us,” Bogut said after the loss to the Jazz. “No one is going to give us anything easy, so we got to dig ourselves out of this hole.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Mavericks won four of the past six meetings.
2. Portland C Festus Ezeli (knee) missed the first five games and there isn’t a timetable for his return.
3. Dallas PG Deron Williams had a season-best nine assists on Wednesday and scored in double digits in all four games.