PORTLAND — Although their records don’t indicate it, the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers will take the court as virtual mirror images of each other Saturday night at the Moda Center.
Led by reigning Coach of the Month and former Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts, the Trail Blazers (17-3) have sprinted out of the gates en route to the best record in the Western Conference. Still, with a familiarity with Stotts’ system and philosophy, the Mavericks (12-8) enter Saturday night’s showdown confident that they can compete while trying to collect their third overall win in a row.
“They couldn’t have gotten a better coach for that situation,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said with high praise for the work that Stotts has done this season. “I mean, he’s transformed that whole thing — style of play, they move the ball, they score. And this year they’re defending better, because they have better defensive players. Mo Williams and [Robin] Lopez are good defenders. Lopez is an impact big guy on defense, and Mo Williams is a good defender on the perimeter pressuring the ball. You know, it’s really changed their team a lot.”
But, just like the rest of the league, the Mavs will have to find a way to slow down All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge and reigning Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard if they are going to end Portland’s four-game winning streak and hand the Blazers just their second home loss.
Playing the front end of a rare home-home back-to-back, the Blazers feasted on the NBA’s worst team Friday night, hitting 17 of 23 from beyond the 3-point arc en route to a 130-98 rout of Utah and 15th win in their last 16 games. Still, with Aldridge putting up All-Star numbers once again, averaging 23.4 points and 10.0 rebounds on the season, the Dallas defense knows it will have its hands full for 48 minutes.
“It’s not really a surprise. [Aldridge] should have been an All-Star a couple of years, to be honest. I always put the case in the last couple of years, so I think he’s a versatile player,” 11-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki said of his counterpart. “He can pound you on the left block, he can pick and pop, he’s a good defender and a good rebounder, so to me he’s always been the whole package. He’s just showing more of the same, and they have a better team around him.
“They run some of the same stuff, but I told Terry last year he took all of our plays up there. I told him last year, ‘You could have at least changed the names of the plays,’ and he said he did on a couple but not on all of them. So, yeah, they’re really playing well. And what makes them so great is they’ve got all these shooters around [Aldridge]. They post him a lot, but if you double team him [Wesley] Matthews is shooting the ball well, [Nicolas] Batum and Lillard, who’s a great point guard. So, I mean, you’ve got to pick and choose against that team.”
The Mavericks hope to choose correctly, attempting to build off Wednesday’s 100-97 win in New Orleans to begin a stretch of four straight road games.
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