Andre Miller (24) and the Blazers persevered on the second night of a back-to-back even without Brandon Roy. Miller scored a career high 52 points. (AP Photo/Ralph Lauer)On the road, having lost a close one in Houston the night before and without their best player; the Portland Trail Blazers (28-21) had every opportunity to wave the white flag. After the Mavericks got up 112-108 with 2:23 remaining in overtime, the Blazers defense tightened.
The Dallas Mavericks (30-17) missed their next four shots, and Portland scored six straight to steal the victory in Dallas. Andre Miler made 22 of his 31 shot attempts (71 percent) as he had the third highest scoring night against the Mavs in the history of the franchise (52), and was one point away from the highest scoring game at the AAC.
"I just wanted to stay aggressive," said Miller, who scored seven of the Blazers 11 Overtime points. "I didn't look at it as scoring the ball, but just going out and making plays and being the point guard. The shots came and since they were going in, I kept shooting."
Miller came into the game averaging 12.6 points and shooting only 44 percent. His previous season-high was 28 points.
Dallas has allowed their last three opponents to each shoot over 50 percent from the field and Rick Carlise is none too happy about it.
"We got very soft defensively as a team," said Carlise, whose team has allowed an average of 111 points over the past three games. "We were a tough-minded defensive team the first quarter of the year and it's gone by the wayside."
With the win, the Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak. The Mavericks have now lost two straight.
Nowitzki's Potential Game-Tying Basket Rims Out
Dirk Nowitzki scored 14 of his team-high 28 points in the fourth quarter, but missed the final four shots he attempted in Overtime. The final shot, a fall-away 14-footer from the top of the free-throw line, rimmed out at time expired. Nicolas Batum, a rookie out of France, was on Nowitzki for the majority of the Overtime period and his defense forced the big German into some off-balanced shots.
Nowitzki also missed the potential game-winner with a little-over a second remaining, but he was forced to do it all tonight offensively. Dirk took five of the Mavs final seven shots as no other Dallas player seemed to want the ball in crunch time.
"I had a good look at the game-winner off the spin move," said Nowitzki, who also added nine rebounds and two assists. "That's a shot I've got to make. In overtime it was the same thing. It's definitely a tough one to swallow."
Mavericks Bench Plays Well
New sixth-man Josh Howard led the bench bonanza with 17 points as the Mavs bench outscored the Blazers reserves 44-18.
J.J. Barea added 13 and seven boards, while Eddie Najera made his first appearance and scored his first points this season as a Mav - on a three pointer. This is something that definitely wasn't in his repretoire in his last stay with Dallas.
Whats Next
As the losses mount, Dallas keeps falling closer and closer to the middle-of-the-pack in the Western Conference standings. The Nuggets are now a game-and-a-half ahead of the Mavericks for second in the conference, while the Utah Jazz are only a game-and-a-half behind for fourth place.
Speaking of Utah, Dallas will travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Jazz Monday night. Utah is 19-6 at home this season (third best in the West), have won five straight and nine of their last 10 games overall.
The Mavericks have played the Jazz twice already this season, at home, splitting the two games. Utah won Jan. 9, 111-93 and Dallas won Nov. 4, 95-86 thanks to Nowitzki's record-breaking fourth quarter.
Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. and can be seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
News and Notes:
- Dallas is now 8-7 in 2010, after going 22-10 before the new year.
- Andre Miller's 52 was the third highest point total against Dallas in team history. Second was Tim Duncan's 53 (12/26/01) and the record is Kobe Bryant's 62 (12/20/2005).
- Since his insertion into the starting line-up, 1/20 in Washington D.C., Jason Terry has averaged 17.5 points on 50 percent shooting. But, Dallas is only 3-3 with JET starting and it appears offense is not the Mavs' biggest priority at the moment.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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