Damian Lillard prevailed in the first round of the two-day heavyweight battle, but Luka Doncic surely will strive to have his own show-stopping performance in Sunday night’s rematch when the Portland Trail Blazers again host the Dallas Mavericks.
Portland rolled to a 136-119 win over the Mavericks on Saturday when Doncic never found his groove and was held to a season-low 15 points — 19 points below his season average. Lillard had 36 points and 10 assists as the Trail Blazers halted a season-worst five-game slide.
Doncic, the NBA scoring leader, was hounded into 7-of-19 shooting and missed all five 3-point attempts in Saturday’s game.
He also seemed a bit tired after playing a career-high 53 minutes in Thursday’s 119-115 double-overtime road win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Lillard made four 3-pointers as the Trail Blazers halted a six-game skid in the series against Dallas.
But he also was wary with a second dose of Doncic still to come — especially with the Dallas star likely motivated to make up for his shakiest outing of the season.
Lillard also moved into second place in Trail Blazers history with 4,939 career assists, passing Hall of Fame member Clyde Drexler (4,933). Portland’s all-time leader is Terry Porter with 5,319.
Jusuf Nurkic (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Anfernee Simons (21 points) also had strong outings for Portland, which owned a whopping 47-25 rebounding edge.
The victory was just the fourth in the past 14 games for the Trail Blazers.
Short-handed Dallas is 1-3 on a five-game road swing and played without big man Christian Wood (right ankle) on Saturday. Also, Tim Hardaway Jr. departed with a left ankle injury during Saturday’s game and his availability could be in question.
Other Dallas players who sat out Saturday were forwards Dorian Finney-Smith (adductor), Maxi Kleber (hamstring) and guard Josh Green (elbow).
The bright spot for the Mavericks was the play of Reggie Bullock, who scored a season-high 24 points on a career-best eight 3-pointers.
Bullock was just 11 of 41 (26.8) from 3-point range over the past eight games. He said a pep talk from Dallas coach Jason Kidd helped him rediscover his stroke.
