Tonight at 5:00 p.m. PST, the Portland Trail Blazers face the Dallas Mavericks on the last day of the regular season. Both teams are locked into their respective playoff seeds (Portland is the four-seed and Dallas is the seven-seed) so this game doesn’t have any relevance to the NBA Playoff picture. The main focus for the Trail Blazers and the Mavericks is the health of their players heading into the postseason. This game can be seen on CSNNW and the radio call can be heard on Rip City Radio 620 AM.
The final day of the regular season is upon us and the Trail Blazers know exactly where they will be seeded in the playoffs. However; they don’t know who their opponent will be. Based on what happens in other games tonight, the Trail Blazers could face the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, or San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The Trail Blazers will not have home court advantage as they will finish with a worse record than the five-seed. With their playoff positioning concrete, what can we expect from tonight’s game?
Head Coach Terry Stotts isn’t sure what his lineup will look like tonight. The only confirmed information we have at this point is that Batum and McCollum will not suit up. Both said their injuries are not serious which is good news for the Trail Blazers. If you browse over the injury report above, you will see that resting players tonight wouldn’t be a terrible decision. Stotts is a believer in staying sharp as you enter the playoffs so we can’t be sure he’ll rest his players. “I’ll take (resting players) into consideration,” Stotts told Trail Blazers beat writer Casey Holdahl. “But I think it’s important that if (Aldridge) can play that he (plays). He’s been out for a little bit, so I think that’s important to kind of keep the edge. But how much (he’ll play), that’s to be seen.”
The Mavericks also know where they will be positioned in the first round of the playoffs and may rest their star players. On Monday, Head Coach Rick Carlisle decided to rest Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, and Monta Ellis. He may do the same thing for tonight’s game but we haven’t seen any news from the Mavericks yet. Parsons has missed the last five games with a knee injury and he seems to be the priority at this point. With so many question marks, this game could go either way.
This will be the fourth meeting between the teams this season. The Trail Blazers have won two of the previous three games but both wins came at home. Both of the Trail Blazers victories over the Mavericks were lopsided (108-87 and 94-75) but they lost a heartbreaker in Dallas on February 7. In that game, the Trail Blazers blew an 11 point lead with two minutes to play in regulation. Nowitzki hit a three-point basket to force overtime and then Parsons took over. Parsons scored 10 points in the extra period and the Mavericks completed a huge comeback victory, winning 111-101.
Tonight the focus will be on playing time. If Aldridge is capable, Stotts will play him. The reasoning behind it makes sense but I’d like to see him get rest. Lillard will play to keep his consecutive starts streak alive but I’d expect him to play limited minutes. Lopez could also use some rest too, but there is a line where sitting too many players results in undue strain on those remaining. This game will be in the hands of the reserves. Not exactly the type of game we want to see but that’s what you get at this time of the season. Let’s get through this game and head to the playoffs, which could present a rematch of last season’s exciting first round series against the Rockets.