The final four minutes of Thursday night’s loss in Dallas were a mess. The Portland Trail Blazers had responded to numerous second half charges to hold off the shorthanded Mavericks and built a 10-point lead with 4:33 remaining.
The Blazers held a double-digit lead and were staring down a chance to wrap up their early January road swing at 3-2. Then it all went sideways. The Mavericks scored 16 unanswered points to turn a 10 point deficit into a six point lead. Nearly every call during that stretch went in favor of the home team, including a strange replay challenge that took away what seemed to be obvious free throws and turned them into a non-shooting foul. An uneven whistle wasn’t the only culprit, however.
Chauncey Billups made an odd decision to go with a center-less small ball lineup that couldn’t generate any distinct advantages on offense and couldn’t grab a defensive rebound against Mavericks center Dereck Lively. And to top it off Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe made a series of poor choices on tough jumpers in crunch time, failing to protect the lead by virtue of taking challenging, one-on-one shots.
The holy trinity of weird reffing, odd coaching and bad shooting. That’s how you lose 10 point lead at crunch time.
AND YET
Despite that debacle the Trail Blazers are still playing their best basketball of the season right now. It’s true! Even if it doesn’t feel like it. The road swing included a win at Milwaukee and a blowout victory in New Orleans sandwiched between competitive losses against the Lakers, Pistons and Mavericks.
Toumani Camara is finding his footing on offense, adding to his hounding defensive presence. Deni Avdija is settling into his role and has been the Blazers best player over the past month. Anfernee Simons is shaking off early seasons bricks with stronger shooting nights. Shaedon Sharpe looks closer to a complete offensive player every week.
The loss in Dallas was a brutal coda to a solid trip away from Portland. The Blazers can head back home knowing their playing their best basketball of the season.
