In a game that really didn't mean much at all to either the Portland Trail Blazers or the Dallas Mavericks, two teams who had already qualified for the 2015 NBA Playoffs, the Mavericks led wire-to-wire to hand the Blazers a 114-98 defeat at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night.
Dallas (50-32) reaches 50 wins for the 14th time in franchise history and the 12th time over the last 15 seasons.
Offensively, the Mavs were led by veteran center Tyson Chandler who finished with a double-double (22 points, 15 rebounds), his 31st of the season while playing 24:44.
"He was great," Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said of Chandler. "He was great at both ends; rebounding, presence around the rim. He was scoring. He made one jump shot. He got free throws in and he had one or two tip-ins. He got us going and then as the game went on, I thought we got better."
Dirk Nowitzki, who played 27:21 against Portland, chipped in 16 points while Monta Ellis, who played the second-highest minutes for the Mavs in the game at 28:11, finished with 15 points.
Al-Farouq Aminu logged the most minutes for Dallas, finishing with seven points and nine rebounds in 32:37 of action against the Blazers.
Portland (51-31) was led by Dallas native LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored 19 points for the visitors. Damian Lillard also chipped in 17 for Portland.
The message from Blazers head coach Terry Stotts, a former Mavs assistant, to his team after this loss was rather short and to the point.
"(I told them) we had a good 82-game season," Stotts said. ‘We've accomplished a lot in the regular season and now it's time to move on."
This was a game where the Mavs never trailed. Late in the first half, Portland got as close as five points, trailing 56-51 at halftime.
However, Dallas hit the hardwood running to begin the second half, delivering the knockout blow in the form of a 15-0 run that put them ahead 71-51 with 8:39 remaining in the third quarter.
Richard Jefferson paced the Mavs during that surge with six points, both coming from long range but Dallas also got four points from Rajon Rondo, three from Nowitzki and two from Ellis during that rather impressive flurry which KOed the visitors for the night.
Dallas was locked into the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs, so this game didn't have much meaning for the Mavs, at least on paper.
However, Chandler wasn't about to undersell the significance of this win while addressing the media in the Dallas locker room postgame.
"It was a game that we came locked in from the start," Chandler said. "We wanted to get the 50th win for this franchise. We've had a lot of success over the years and we want that to continue, and we also wanted to go in healthy."
The Mavs will face the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets in a best-of-seven series beginning next week.
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