Dallas made a roaring comeback in the fourth quarter to take down Portland
The Dallas Mavericks completed a stirring comeback against the Portland Trail Blazers, winning 117-111 Thursday night in Dallas.
Jaden Hardy came off the bench to lead all scorers with 25 points. Dereck Livley had a monster double-double, with 21 points and 16 rebounds. It was Lively’s first game with at least 20 points this season.
Portland came into Dallas on the second night of a back-to-back, yet it was the Mavericks who started the game sleepy — the Trail Blazers collected six offensive rebounds in the first quarter to help build a 28-20 lead headed into the second.
In the second quarter the Mavericks made up some ground, thanks to Hardy’s scoring off the bench, but the Trail Blazers couldn’t miss from deep. Dallas trailed at halftime thanks to Portland shooting 10-of-18 from three in the first half.
The third quarter and the first half of the fourth quarter followed the same theme of Dallas making a run to get within one shot, and then the Trail Blazers immediately answering back with a run of their own. Dallas cut the lead to one at 74-73 in the third, only for Portland to go on an 8-0 run. With about five minutes left in the fourth, Dallas made another run, only for Portland extend the lead after a timeout back to 10.
With about four minutes left in the game and Dallas down 10, it felt like the Mavericks finally woke up. Led by Lively’s defense at the rim, and his offensive rebounding on the other end of the floor, the Mavericks cleaned up their mistakes, forced the Blazers into difficult shots, and reclaimed the lead on a late PJ Washington corner three. Once Dallas took that three point lead with under two minutes left they never surrendered it, as a tired Trail Blazers team limped to the finish line, scoring on two points in the final 4:23 of the game. Dallas closed the game on an 18-2 run.
Here’s what we noticed.
Dereck Lively is that dude
Lively’s sophomore season has felt a little weird. The metrics are great, with the Mavericks playing fantastic basketball with him on the floor, and Dallas’ defensive numbers looking awesome whenever Lively is patrolling the paint. His assists are up too, as Dallas is trusting their big men more and more to operate with the ball in their hands at the elbow.
Despite this success, and the Mavericks initial good start to the season before the injuries to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the eye test felt a little off. Lively is averaging basically the same amount of minutes per game as his rookie season, and his counting numbers (points, rebounds) feel a little flat. Lively is clearly impacting the game in a winning way for Dallas, but this season has felt a little underwhelming, if only because of the sky-high expectations for the 20-year-old after an otherworldly rookie season.
Tonight felt like Lively’s coming out party, in a way. This was the Lively most envisioned after his rookie season: 35 minutes, 21 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocks. Lively was the anchor for Dallas in this game, cleaning up mistakes on both ends of the floor, whether it was bailing a teammate out defensively at the rim, or grabbing an offensive rebound after a doomed possession. Most impressive of all of Lively’s numbers is probably the minutes: the 35 minutes are easily a season high, while Daniel Gafford only played 10 in his first game back from an ankle sprain that had him sit out the Lakers win on Tuesday.
Ideally this is what the Mavericks center minutes distribution should look like, and Lively has to stay on the floor with good healthy and avoid foul trouble. Lively only had three fouls tonight, and was great in the fourth quarter at contesting near the rim without giving up cheap fouls on pump fakes or loose balls. It’s not reasonable to expect Lively to do this every game, but if the Mavericks can get his minutes per game up near the 30 range, this team can really do some special things — granted Lively’s body can hold up.
A big Hardy party
Jaden Hardy has basically given the Mavericks everything they could have expected as a 37th overall pick a few seasons ago. Despite Hardy’s high school pedigree, you just can’t expect too much from second round picks. They’re basically lotto scratch off tickets.
Hardy hasn’t played well in his third season, but the Mavericks haven’t really needed him to considering how stacked the roster is at full health. With all the injuries however, it’s finally been time for Hardy to get consistent burn, and while he still isn’t playing flawless basketball, he’s giving the Mavericks some crucial scoring. Hardy had a season-high 25 points tonight, and if it weren’t for his early scoring in the first half, Dallas might have been in a deficit it couldn’t have rallied from.
Success for Hardy tonight resembled what it usually does when Hardy succeeds: scoring off the catch, whether it’s catch and shoots or attacking closeouts. Hardy still hasn’t found a consistent on-the-ball game, running the offense or trying to create something from scratch. His handle just isn’t there and his athleticism and size hinders him when he tries to go one-on-one. But attack a scrambled defense? Spot up around another creator? Hardy has the jumper to make due and the threat of his jumper helps his unreliable handle when defenders are closing out to take away the three. Hardy scored a lot of assisted buckets tonight, and that’s exactly what the Mavericks need without Luka and Kyrie, just someone that can put the ball into the basket.
Dallas doesn’t have a lot of creation, but Spencer Dinwiddie and Quentin Grimes are doing just enough and Hardy is benefitting whenever he stays off-ball.