Portland Trail Blazers beat Dallas Mavericks , 97-92: NBA Playoffs Round 1
Wesley Matthews delivered a team high 25 points in a tight battle that finally landed Portland in the winners circle. The Portland Trail Blazers rolled over the Dallas Mavericks to notch a wild 97-92 victory on April 21st, 2011 at the Rose Garden,
Portland.
The game was an epic demonstration of how the Blazers can put back a team as good as the third seeded Mavericks. The sixth seeded Blazers made a narrow escape to avoid handing over the third straight victory to the Mavs in the best-of-seven series. Dallas,
who were leading the series 2-0, endured a first half assault, finally letting the Blazers go with a victory at home, making it 2-1.
LaMarcus Aldridge posted 20 points and four rebounds to go along with four rebounds, one steal and one block in the win. Andre Miller and Brandon Roy contributed 16 points each. Matthews also pinned 4-of-6 three-pointers. Roy overcame his controversy over
the comments he made after playing for eight minutes in game 2 and was received with an emotional standing ovation. He boosted his teams morale after posting a fade away jumper resulting in a 28-23 early lead into the second quarter.
Marcus Camby played despite injuring his right hand in game 2. The Blazers player scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the victory.
Jason Terry led the Mavericks, posting game high 29 points and also getting a game high five three-pointers in the loss. Dirk Nowitzki followed with 25 points and nine boards and no other Dallas player could score more than 10 points in the game.
After leading the Mavericks by just three points at the end of third, the Blazers ran away with 13 points in the final quarter. The Mavericks fought hard, intent on not letting the Blazers get away easily. Nowitzki leaped forward to shoot two consecutive
jumpers to pull the scores closer at 81-87 with 6:27 on the clock. Camby and Aldridge stretched the scores to extend the gap by as much as nine points, 91-82, making it even tougher for the Mavs to make a comeback. It was Nowitzki’s free throw and turnaround
bank shot followed by Kidd’s jumper that almost got the Mavs back the game, 92-95. With just 12.9 seconds down the stretch, the Blazers called for a team timeout and right after that fouled Kidd to gain possession of two free throws that Miller successfully
netted, scoring 97-92. Kidd missed a three-pointer with just 6.9 seconds left in game but that would not have been sufficient for them as it was a five point gap.
Withe the Blazers successful in defeating the Mavericks in the third game of playoffs, the next game will be a all out battle. The Blazers need to make full use of the home court advantage if they expect to make it to the next round.
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