The Dallas Mavericks fell 126-122 to the Portland Trail Blazers for the second night in a row, in a disappointing defensive performance like Friday night against the Phoenix Suns. Portland picked up the Mavs’ defense, with five players scoring over 19 points. But it’s somewhat understandable that Dallas’ defense was underwhelming considering they had to fly over 1,000 miles for the second night in a row.

Kyrie Irving was incredible, but not great enough to lead the Mavericks to victory. They will get PJ Washington back from a one-game suspension for their next game and he will be desperately needed.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s loss to the Blazers.

READ MORE: The Mavericks fall victim to the Trail Blazers (126-122) despite 46 points from Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving is good enough to beat the Mavs on most nights, but the defense couldn’t get enough stops in this game. However, that didn’t stop Irving from scoring an incredible 46 points on 16 of 26 shooting from the floor and 5 of 12 from three, which was his season high. That includes 20 points in the fourth quarter as he tried to rally his team back. He’s still as impressive a player as he was in the NBA when he’s hitting his stride at 32 years old.

With Luka Doncic out for a month with a calf strain, it would be nice to see Klay Thompson improve a bit, and he has been disappointing in the last two games. He had 12 points on 5/17 shooting from the floor and 2/8 shooting Saturday night, while missing a few free shots we expected from him. With some big games coming up against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets, he will need to play at a high level to beat those teams.

The Trail Blazers shot 46/92 from the floor, including 41 shot attempts at the rim. Even if they “only” managed 24 of them, that’s far too many and an example of Dallas’ poor perimeter defense in this game. Scoot Henderson had his second-highest game of the season with 19 points and was the Blazers’ fifth-highest scoring player on the night. That simply cannot happen for Dallas to succeed. Getting PJ Washington back for the next game will help, but other guys need to step up too.

READ MORE: Home of Mavericks star Luka Doncic was burglarized on Friday night

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