Sunday, May 1, 2011

First Round- Mavs vs Portland: Game 6

The Lakers wrapped up their first round series verse the hornets in their game 6 victory and would be awaiting whoever won this series. The Mavs and Lakers haven't met in the post-season since 1988 so this is a matchup that would be most anticipated but in order for this to happen, the Mavs had to close out their series verse Portland. Game 6 happened to be at the Rose Garden, a place where the Mavs have failed to win at during the regular season as well as the post season thus far. But despite that statistic, the Mavs stepped foot onto the court of the Rose Garden with confidence of advancing to the second round.

The Mavericks had a sluggish start to the game as they fell behind early 19-7, after Wallace scored the Blazers' first nine points. Dirk then scored six straight during an 8-0 run by the Mavs, but the Blazers hung on to the 29-19 lead to end the first quarter. In the first, Dallas shot just 8 of 23 from the field as opposed to 11 of 20 for Portland.

Early in the second, Wallace left for the bench with lower back tightness while Dirk scored nine straight points along with the rest of his team's help to spark a 13-2 run and eventually tie it at 35. Dallas took their first lead of the night after Peja and Terry hit back to back 3-pointers. Terry went on to hit another 3-pointer at the buzzer, ending the second with the 52-43 lead.

The Mavs outscored the Blazers, 33-16, in the second quarter, but the Blazers still managed to outshoot the Mavs in the first half, 45.2% to 42.2%. Dirk had 19 points in the first half while Terry added 10 points off the bench.

In the third quarter, Wallace returned to the floor and with his help the Blazers continued to fight after trailing by 13. Despite a scoreless quarter from Dirk after getting into foul trouble, Marion, Chandler, and Terry stepped up to help Dallas gain a lead of as much as 17 before heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Blazers came back to within three points with less than 6 minutes remaining. Mavs' fans everywhere began to get a sense of deja vu of the fourth quarter of the 23-point lead that Dallas blew earlier in the season. A steal followed by a dunk by Wallace cut Dallas' lead to just one before Kidd answered with a 3-pointer and Terry with a jumper to extend their lead to 5 points with 4 minutes left on the clock. Dirk acquired his fifth foul with under 3 minutes to go. Terry hit another jumper followed by a miss by Wallace with just 32 seconds to go. Dirk headed to the charity stripe to put Dallas up 97-89. Despite a Blazers 3-pointer, the Mavs held onto the lead till the end and won it 103-96.

Dirk finished with a game-high 33 points and 11 rebounds. Terry had 22 points off the bench while Marion added 16 points to make 3 Mavs' players in double figures.

Wallace led the Blazers with 32 points and 12 rebounds while Aldridge also had a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Matthews was the only other Blazer in double figures with 19 points.

Despite the loss, the Blazers out-rebounded Dallas 41-39 and took the 22-11 advantage in second chance points. The Mavericks still outshot Portland, 50% to 44%.

This was the Mavericks first win on the Rose Garden floor all year as they wrapped up the series 4-2. They will now go on to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round starting their first pair of games at the Staples Center.

**Game 1 will air on TNT, Monday night at 10:30pm ET.

Marion and Camby fighting for the rebound

Marion with the floater

Tyson with a dunk
Steve Dykes/NBAE/Getty Images

Dirk boxing out Camby

Dirk going up for the layup
Sam Forencich/NBAE/Getty Images

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MyDallasMavs: First Round- Mavs vs Portland: Game 6

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First Round- Mavs vs Portland: Game 6