In 24 hours, the Mavericks pulled off wins at Phoenix and at Portland, and all of a sudden Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and the rest of the scrapping Mavs are making themselves relevant again in the Western Conference race.
As inconsistently as the Mavs have played all season, and as dead as they've looked at times, they are right in the thick of the race for first-round home-court advantage. After back-to-back wins at Phoenix and Portland, the Mavs, at a season-best 15 games over .500 (40-25), remained in eighth place but just a half-game back of Denver and Portland, one game behind New Orleans and Utah and 1 1/2 games back of third-place Houston. "We're looking up, not behind us," guard Jason Terry said. "We want to get as high as we can."
Few gave the Mavs much of a chance to do better than 1-3 on this four-game road trip. Now they take perhaps the most confidence they've had all season into Golden State on Friday before Sunday's showdown against the Lakers -- the team they'll face in the first round if they can't escape the eighth spot. For a few days, at least, the Mavs are relevant again.
MAVERICKS 93, TRAIL BLAZERS 89: Dallas' big guns came through again as Dirk Nowitzki (29 points, 10 rebounds) and Jason Terry (24 points, five rebounds, four assists) kept the Mavs ahead for the majority of the game and both nailed big shots in the fourth quarter. Quality performances from others were key factors. Erick Dampier had 12 points and nine rebounds. Jason Kidd had an assist-rebound double-double with 10 and 10 to go with seven points. Brandon Roy had 22 points, but made just seven of 20 field goal attempts. The Mavs were without Josh Howard and the Blazers played without Rudy Fernandez.
