Mavericks 99, Blazers 74

Bad. Poor. Not fun.

You'd think I was describing the Portland TrailBlazers, and in a way, I am. But I was actually describing the Mavericks. They played this game pretty poorly almost all the way through, and they still wind up with a 25-point win. This is the stuff of legend. The defense clamped down and the Blazers couldn't hit the broadside of a universe last night. It's nice to know that when the Mavs don't look that great, they can still pull it off in convincing fashion.

Nowitzki was a non-factor, as Jason Terry and Josh Howard led the way, with their modest contributions of 20 and 17 points respectively. 3-pointers was the story of this game as they helped the Mavs pull away at key times, and kept the Blazers from getting anywhere close. Dallas was 10 for 16, as Devean George went on his usual 0 for whatever night, this time only 0 for 1. What is up with that guy? It seems I check the box scores and George has maybe a few points, but mostly has no points and shoots tons of 3's and doesn't make any of them. It's kind of annoying. I guess they pay him to play defense. I'll take that. Anyway, Portland didn't make a single 3-pointer. And they shot it 11 times. Wow. Hardly ever will you see a stat like that. It certainly helped the Mavs win, and contributed to the team shooting under 40% for the game. Sad. The Mavs barely won the rebounding matchup, but they did thanks to Dampier who played a huge chunk of time in this one. Still only came away with 2 points, but whatever.

Not a biggie. A game they couldn't lose. And by that, I mean it was impossible for them to lose. They sort of tried for a while, but realized it wouldn't be a great idea.