The Portland Trail Blazers showed a rare, highly dynamic and offensive performance against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday evening. 131 points represented a season high for the Blazers, who were characterized by a 58% shooting rate from both the field and the three-point arc. All of that momentum proved futile as Portland faced off against the point guard-driven buzzsaw that was the Mavericks in all their glory. Dallas shot 50% from the floor, hitting half of its three-pointers, and defeated Portland 136-131. Unfortunately, that great performance still counted as Portland’s 13th loss of the season.

Here are some of the factors that influenced the outcome.

Turnover bait

The Blazers still commit a lot of turnovers, but one wonders if the sloppy play has a sense of madness. You cringe every time you see Portland speeding a little too fast, speeding, and driving with strangely unwarranted abandon. The mistakes that result from their frantic action often result in the opponent being thrown out of the race. But Portland does a pretty good job of getting back on defense even in the face of offense. Sometimes the same hectic aura seems to dominate the other team, which in turn loses the ball. The Blazers use this to score easy points they couldn’t otherwise.

I’m not saying the Blazers blatantly benefit from their own (often unreasonable) turnovers. I will say that it’s not uncommon for Portland to commit 2-3 TOs, the opponent does the same, and suddenly the Blazers are on a 10-4 run. It happened tonight against Dallas. These stretches were definitely better than watching Luka Doncic grill the Blazers in the halfcourt.

Portland totaled 21 turnovers in the game, Dallas kept up with them early, but then settled down and only managed 13. For comparison, the Mavericks had 13 stealswhich resulted in as many turnovers as the Blazers could force in total. No matter how much momentum Portland got from the hectic game, the mistakes hurt them in the end.

Three-pointers and layups

In what is almost always a sure sign of impending disaster, the Blazers were ineffective in covering the three-point arc early in the game. Dallas didn’t get many makes early on, but you could see the pattern developing. Once things heated up, Portland would suffer.

The Blazers compensated by playing a small, centerless lineup. Most of it was involuntary, with centers Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III out and a parade of forwards left in the middle due to the absence of starting center Deandre Ayton. The shorter, faster lineups managed to close the arc better, but the effort came with a secondary cost. Instead of shooting the long ball, the Mavericks began throwing it inside to their own centers. Typically, this would happen after the main defender made a run to the crease and an even smaller Portland player manned the middle. The Mavericks’ big guys did pretty well against 6-foot-tall opponents in the restricted area.

Nowhere was this more true than early in the third period when the game was closely contested. Dallas hit 7 of its first 8 shots in the second half: 3 at the rim and 4 three-pointers. The Blazers scored 6 of 8 points themselves. That should have given Portland a significant lead. Instead, they struggled to maintain contact in the face of a big Dallas run.

On Portland’s best offensive night of the season, the Mavericks still made as many three-pointers as the Blazers (18) and outscored Portland 54-52.

Simons in the third

Anfernee Simons looks ordinary on the court, until the exact moment he doesn’t. In this case, the “not” came early in the third period and coincided with Dallas’ big run. Simons hit five three-pointers and two mid-range shots in the first 8:15 of the third period and didn’t miss a single shot. Those 19 points (on their way to 24 in the quarter) kept the Blazers in the game. His explosive run started sharp and then became downright destructive.

One of the best plays of the period came with 2:30 left when Dallas, in a desperate attempt to get the ball out of Simons’ hands, converted it into a double at the midfield line. He threw the ball inside to Jabari Walker, who shoveled it to Toumani Camara, who hit a wide-open three-pointer against a defense that still hadn’t recovered from that distance.

Dallas hit 60% in the third period, but Portland got close to 80% thanks to Anfernee. Wow.

Unfortunately, Simons committed four fouls before 7:00 of the second quarter tonight. His fifth came right at the end of the third. He checked in at 8:00 of the fourth game and was immediately fouled. Like Smaug in The Hobbit, Ant showed up for a brief but memorable starring role and then dropped out. But boy, was it worth seeing.

Threesomes and more threesomes

We’ve mentioned it twice now, but it’s worth repeating. How did the Blazers make up for Dallas’ efficient shooting and Simons’ absence? They always do the same thing when they roll the dice: threes and more threes. Portland shot a blistering 18-31 from distance, led by Camara (5-7 from distance) and Simons (6-8).

Banton’s Gear

Dalano Banton got a decent amount of prime-time minutes tonight, thanks in part to Simons’ foul trouble. Banton’s height of 1.90 m (and the corresponding length) helped a little against Doncic, who bullied the smaller Simons mercilessly. But the most striking part of Banton’s game is always his attack. Because of his deceptive ability to change speed, he gets rides that other players never see. He sucks in a defender by accelerating sharply and then transitioning to a slow dribble, as if moving in to pass or retreat. As the opponent begins to stand up and adjust to Banton’s new pace, Dalano speeds up again and blows past him. This results in him ending up right in front of the basket despite an attentive defender. It’s amazing to see.

Banton scored 9 points on 4-8 shooting and 5 assists in 25 minutes.

The good and the bad of Deni Avdija

Deni Avdija did a good job tonight of picking up the pace and recovering. His all-rounder abilities make him the right answer to almost any question a coach might ask.

“Almost” is a bit heavy-handed in this sentence, however. Remember the home brewing hype about a decade ago? Avdija ends the break like your buddy’s first ever IPA. (Note: That’s not a compliment.) His passing on the run was also surprisingly suspicious.

However, Deni made up for everything in the half field. He’s typically an important safety valve for Portland’s point guard-lite offense. Tonight, he also put up big numbers in the second half when his team needed to score. Towards the end of the game, he became the default point guard and delivered one of his best performances of the season.

Avdija finished the game with 21 points on 7-12 shooting with one steal, but only 2 assists on 4 turnovers.

Sharpe Airborne

You know how they say nothing good happens when you’re out on the town after 2 a.m.? We can modify it slightly to say that nothing good happens for Shaedon Sharpe below 10 feet. When Sharpe has the ball on the touchline and defends solidly, he looks ordinary, if tempting. But when he elevates himself – whether on a drive, chasing an offensive rebound or chasing a blocked shot – he is one of the league’s special players. Watching Shaedon perform in the air is a thing of beauty and one of the items you should check off your modern blazer wish list. He scored 22 points on 10-20 shooting tonight.

Yes, Ayton

The Blazers only used one center against the Mavericks, but he had a damn good game. Deandre Ayton scored quickly and efficiently in the half court. He barely slowed down the offense, instead converting a variety of short hooks and jump shots. The result was an 8-11, 18-point performance, which was much needed since the Blazers otherwise lacked organic offense.

Ayton wasn’t late in the game. Head coach Chauncey Billups seems to have taken a liking to a fast-paced, defensively strong lineup at the end of games. Fair enough. It almost worked.

Dinwiddie and Doncic

As fantastic as Simons and Banton were tonight, the Mavericks still won the battle of the point guards. Doncic had 36 points, 13 assists and 3 steals, while Spencer Dinwiddie contributed 20 points, 5 assists and 2 steals off the bench. Their offensive prowess made the Mavericks unstoppable when the Blazers only needed a few stops to win the game.

Next

Box score

The Blazers travel to the Oh-So-Twee Super Fancy Billionaire Dome to take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m., Pacific. This will be their final NBA Cup qualifying game of the season.