Mavericks overcome Blazers 117-111 with late surge

Jaden Hardy scored a season-high 25 points off the bench, while P.J. Washington contributed 23 points and 14 rebounds, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 117-111 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night.

Dereck Lively II added season highs with 21 points and 16 rebounds for the Mavericks, who are still without All-Star guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Dallas has won two straight following a season-long five-game losing streak, News.az reports, citing ESPN.

Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe each scored 22 points to lead the Blazers, who split a road back-to-back are are 2/3 on their trip.

Scoot Henderson scored 20 off the bench, hitting all 12 of his free throws.

Portland led 109-99 with 4:33 to play but then missed its next six field-goal attempts and committed two turnovers. Washington hit two free throws tying the score at 109-109 with 2:26 left and followed with a right-corner 3-pointer for a 112-109 lead with 1:58 to go.

Takeaways

Blazers: They went in averaging 12.1 3-pointers and surpassed that late in the third period but were only 3 of 9 behind the arc in the fourth quarter.

Mavericks: Hardy, averaging 7.6 points per game this season, has averaged 18.0 over the past four games. It was a quiet night for Klay Thompson, who went 1 of 6 from the floor and 0 for 4 from 3-point range for three points.

Key moment

With the score 112-109, Dallas’ Quentin Grimes tipped back Spencer Dinwiddie’s miss with 40 seconds left, then turned a one-hand heave into a three-point play to complete the 16-point run at 115-109 with 31.8 seconds left.

Key stat

Dallas, playing without its best outside shooters, outscored Portland 58-38 in the paint.

Up next

The Blazers host Miami on Saturday night. The Mavericks will play the first of consecutive home games against Denver on Sunday.

News.Az