The Portland Trail Blazers found a way to beat the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night (Feb. 10) and will now travel to play the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night (Feb. 11). Dallas is always a tough team to go up against and the last time that these two teams faced off was during the first round of the 2012 Western Conference Playoffs.
Dallas started off the season a bit slow after winning the 2011 NBA championship, but has now improved to 16-11 on the season. Dirk Nowitzki is leading the team again, averaging 17.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this season. Jason Terry is also a beat off the bench, averaging 14.8 points with the second unit and presenting a nice challenge when he goes up against Jamal Crawford. Point guard Jason Kidd is finally back from an injury that cost him six games on the year, and this team now has both Vince Carter and Lamar Odom commanding a lot of minutes.
It's unclear if Portland will get the struggling Mavericks or the team that can catch fire and blow out any opponent. Hopefully it's the former, especially after a tough game on Friday night (Feb. 10) against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nowitzki appears to have regained his confidence though, as he went for 33 points on 11-for-19 shooting and the Mavericks out-scored the Wolves by 22 points when he was on the court.
This is the first of three games that the Blazers have against the Mavericks this season, with the other two coming on April 6 and 13. Now is the best time to make a statement for the Blazers though, as the West seems primed to come down to tie-breakers and head-to-head records to decide the playoff standings. Portland is up to No. 6 after beating the Lakers on Friday night and could move up again with a win over the Mavericks. In fact, just one game separates the No. 4 and No. 8 seed in the West, so everything could shift based on Saturday night results.
Game time against Dallas is 5:30 p.m. PT and a win would guarantee that Portland holds on to second place in the Northwest division.
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*Ryan is a Northwest bred sports fan that has been a Portland Trail Blazers fan for years. He doesn't miss a game, and has high hopes that the Blazers can improve their roster during the offseason and come back even better in the 2011-12 NBA season.
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