Lillard drops 40, leads Blazers’ rout of Doncic-less Mavericks

Damian Lillard recorded 40 points and six assists, and the Portland Trail Blazers cruised to a 140-123 victory on Sunday night (Monday, January 16, Manila time) over the visiting Dallas Mavericks, who were without NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic.

Jerami Grant, Jusuf Nurkic and Anfernee Simons added 20 points apiece as Portland defeated Dallas for the second straight night and posted its highest point total of the season for the second consecutive game.

Doncic didn’t play due to a sore left ankle. He scored a season-low 15 points when Dallas lost 136-119 to the host Trail Blazers in the first game of the back-to-back set.

Lillard was 10 of 17 from the field, made 4 of 9 from 3-point range and sank all 16 of his free throws while scoring 40 or more points for the fifth time this season.

Spencer Dinwiddie had 28 points and nine assists, and Jaden Hardy scored a career-best 25 points for Dallas. Christian Wood returned from a one-game absence due to an ankle injury to score 23 points and match his season best of 16 rebounds for the Mavericks.

Davis Bertans added 11 points and Reggie Bullock and Dwight Powell scored 10 apiece for Dallas.

Nassir Little tallied 10 points and Josh Hart grabbed 12 rebounds for Portland, which made 50.6 percent of its shots, including 17 of 44 from behind the arc. The Trail Blazers had lost six straight games to Dallas before sweeping this two-game set.

Dallas shot 46.1 percent from the field and was 14 of 42 from behind the arc.

The Mavericks trailed 106-103 after Hardy’s basket with 9:57 remaining in the game, but Lillard buried two 3-pointers and Nurkic added one during a 16-0 burst that increased the Trail Blazers’ lead to 19.

Nurkic and Grant buried 3-pointers to push the advantage to 130-107 with 4:40 remaining, and Portland sailed to the finish behind a 42-point fourth quarter.

Lillard scored 22 first-half points to help Portland hold a 61-54 lead at the break. Dinwiddie had 14 in the half for the Mavericks.

Dallas cut its deficit to five before Simons made a layup with 5.8 seconds to play in the half.

Powell’s three-point play capped a 10-4 Dallas run to end the third quarter as the Mavericks trimmed their deficit to 98-95 entering the final stanza. – Rappler.com