Watch Trail Blazers @ Mavericks live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Saturday morning (2:30am)
Monday 20 January 2020 04:19, UK
Luka Doncic will look to follow up his 12th triple-double of the season and 20th of his career when the Dallas Mavericks host the Portland Trail Blazers in the early hours of Saturday morning, live on Sky Sports Arena.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle scanned the stat sheet and he had trouble deciphering what he was seeing. Doncic's line against the Sacramento Kings included 25 points, 15 rebounds and a career-best 17 assists.
"These numbers are just crazy," Carlisle said following Dallas' 127-123 road win on Wednesday night. "It is hard to fathom. They are trapping him all over the court every time down. He is both beating the traps and playing beautifully out of the traps."
Superb games have become the norm for second-year star Doncic and he is a prime reason why Dallas have a 26-15 record at the midway point of their schedule.
The only person to find fault with Doncic's play is the Slovenian star himself. The 20-year-old bemoaned his 0-for-5 showing from three-point range against the Kings.
"Obviously, not as good as I can play. I have to practice those threes," Doncic told reporters. "They were doubling me every time, and I like it. Basketball is five players so somebody is going to be open if they double me."
Doncic now gets ready goes up against Portland star Damian Lillard for the second time this season. He had 29 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and three steals in the October 27 meeting but the Trail Blazers prevailed 121-119 in Dallas. Lillard recorded 28 points and five assists in that Portland win.
Blazers All-Star Lillard scored 25 points on Wednesday night as Portland notched one of their best wins of the season, a 117-107 over the host Houston Rockets.
The Trail Blazers (18-24) held NBA scoring leader James Harden to a season-low 13 points. But despite two consecutive victories, the Trail Blazers are still six games below .500.
"A season is full of ups and downs and we've had more downs this year than ups, but it is a whole second half of the season to play," Lillard said after the victory over the Rockets. "We executed and we played like we wanted to win the game… we have just got to try to sustain that."
Shooting guard CJ McCollum added 24 points, center Hassan Whiteside had 18 points and 18 rebounds, and forward Carmelo Anthony recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds in his first game in Houston since the Rockets released him early in the 2018-19 season.
Now Anthony and his team-mates are working on making a second-half charge up the Western Conference standings. The Trail Blazers are currently in 10th place.
"We dug ourselves quite the hole with inconsistent play, injuries, bad losses, lots of losses in a row," McCollum said. "This was a game we needed to win. We need to win every game honestly going forward."
Dallas, who have won three straight games, are in sixth place in the West.
The Mavericks are hoping to have power forward Kristaps Porzingis (right knee) back in the line-up to face Portland.
Porzingis was looking to play against the Kings but the idea was rejected shortly before game time after he felt soreness.
"I kind of felt it a little bit more," Porzingis said afterwards. "Started warming up, started doing some stuff and felt it more and more. They made the decision for me to take some more time."
Carlisle is itching to get Porzingis back in the line-up, with the big man having missed the last nine games.
"You lose a 7ft 3in guy that can rebound and protect the rim like that, it is going to make your rim protection and rebounding more challenging," Carlisle said. "It is a big loss when a guy like that is out.
"Our guys have done a good job of playing without him, but he is a difference-maker. And when you don't have a guy like that, you're going to feel the difference."
Forward Dwight Powell has done his part to soften the loss by making 44-of-54 field-goal attempts (81.5 per cent) over the past seven games. Powell had 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting along with nine rebounds against the Kings. He is averaging 19 points over the past three games and has reached double digits in six of the past seven contests.
