Portland Trail Blazers can’t overcome disastrous first quarter, fall to the Dallas Mavericks

The Portland Trail Blazers fall to the Dallas Mavericks, 111-102.

There’s no way around it: tonight’s game was depressing. After a disastrous first quarter in which the Portland Trail Blazers were outscored 34-20, they never quite found their way back into the game against the Dallas Mavericks. Tonight’s loss marks the third in a row for the club.

Although Portland did pull the game to within seven with about four minutes to go on a spirited stretch from Damian Lillard, the last 36 minutes of the game felt mostly like a formality.

The biggest culprit of their falling behind early? You guessed it, their lack of defensive effort. Again, the Blazers came out the gate with great intensity on that end, forcing turnovers and deflecting passes. But once they realized their shots weren’t falling, they resorted back to panic-mode on offense and a we’ll-get-to-it-when-we-get-to-it mindset on the other end.

There just really isn’t a whole lot to say about tonight’s game. It is part of a string of disappointments that’s led many fans to wonder if Head Coach Terry Stotts has lost the locker room, if the team’s hot start was just fool’s gold, and if a big move is coming in February.

After coming out the gate 10-3, this Blazers team has gone 3-7.

Lillard finished the game with 33 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. He also had six turnovers, several of which came when Dallas telegraphed his entry passes to the rolling man after a pick.

Jusuf Nurkic was a bright spot offensively from the eye-test perspective. He looked powerful on the low block against DeAndre Jordan, giving some tasty spin moves for easy shots. Unfortunately, he didn’t capitalize on all of these opportunities, as he hit only four of his nine shots. He finished with nine points and 11 boards.

Al-Farouq Aminu looks to be hitting his groove, shooting-wise. He hit five of his six shots and secured a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

The rest of the team, however, was fairly unimpressive.

Evan Turner searched for his shot more than he has all year, backing down his matchup to toss up a turnaround that didn’t find its way in all too often. Meyers Leonard, Zach Collins, and Seth Curry combined for six points on 2/5 shooting. Nik Stauskas missed all three of his three-point attempts, including two airballs early. And CJ McCollum was generally inefficient, shooting 7/19 -though he did secure the team’s best plus-minus with +9 in 39 minutes.

For the team to get back on track, they must come out the gate swinging on defense and maintain that intensity, even when things look grim on the offensive end. While tonight was one the offense would like to forget, there’s no reason it had to be one that the defense would like to erase from memory also.

The Blazers play their next game against the Phoenix Suns on December 6 at 7:00 P.S.T.