Mavericks Explode Late in Overtime Win vs. Blazers

A few years ago, Dallas was dubbed “the team that would not die.” The Mavericks (35-18) seemed to play that way Saturday night, storming back in the final two minutes of regulation before taking it in overtime 111-101 against the Portland Trail Blazers (34-17).

On its final wheel, Dallas trailed by 11 with 2:08 and seven with 1:38 left before hitting five of six, including three 3-pointers in the final two minutes to tie the game 96-all. Dirk Nowitzki hit the game-tying three with 20.9 seconds left in regulation and finished with a team-high 25 points.

“We talked about getting some wins before the all-star break and it didn’t look good there for a while. I think they were up 10 with a couple minutes left and I’m proud of the guys on how we fought, how we stepped it up defensively,” Nowitzki said. “We made timely shots and I liked our defensive intensity there in the fourth.”

Damian Lillard had a chance to win it, but his step-back 3-pointer came up well short.

“I really thought defense down the stretch really won us the game, contesting shots and Lillard had the iso to win it and I thought Monta did a really good job forcing a step-back jumper,” Nowitzki said.

The Mavs outscored the Blazers 15-5 in the extra five minutes thanks in large part to 10 points from Chandler Parsons, who finished with 20 points.

“I just try to stay aggressive and stay ready and help my team when they needed me,” he said. “That was such a good team win, no one hung their head. We have an older team that has been in this situation before, being not able to give up against a team that’s very good and ahead of us in the standings is huge.”

Ellis also scored 20 and added four boards, six assists and four steals while Tyson Chandler recorded his 23^rd double-double with 11 points and 13 boards in 38 minutes.

“A lot of things had to go right for us, needed a lot of belief from our guys,” Rick Carlisle said. “We basically pitched a shutout in the last two minutes of overtime. Proud of the guys, that was a heavy weight team, kept plugging which we had to do.”

The first half was a see-saw affair with 12 lead changes and five ties. The Blazers, however, led 55-50 at the break. Dallas led 34-29 and before you knew it, Portland went on a 13-0 run to turn that deficit to a 42-34 lead. The Mavericks responded with a 9-0 run to take a 45-44 lead.

Coming out of halftime, Nowitzki (2) and LaMarcus Aldridge (3) hit five shots in a row and the Mavs trailed by four before Portland countered with a 20-8 run in nearly seven minutes in the third. Devin Harris hit a buzzer-beating three to get Dallas within 83-70 with one quarter to play.

Aldridge and Lillard led the Blazers with 25 and 26 points, respectively while Wesley Matthews added 17 and eight boards. Aldridge grabbed a game-high 14 boards while Nicolas Batum added 10. Portland outrebounded Dallas 31-20 at one point before finishing with just a 58-55 advantage. Parsons and Al-Farouq Aminu each had nine boards for the Mavs.

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