Dirk Nowitzki had 42 points on Friday night as the Mavericks beat the Trail Blazers 115-103 to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
Nowitzki, who had a career-high 46 points in the opener, also had 10 rebounds for the Mavericks, who can advance with a victory in Game 4 in Portland today.
PHOTO: AFP
``We don't want to give that team a chance to think that they can get into this series,'' Dallas guard Nick Van Exel said. ``It will be key for us to jump on them early to establish that we are trying to close this series out.
``Hopefully, that will take a little steam out of them.''
In other playoff games Friday night, San Antonio and Orlando took 2-1 leads in their series, with the Spurs beating Phoenix 99-86, and the Magic topping Detroit 89-80. On Saturday, New Jersey is at Milwaukee, Philadelphia at New Orleans, and Sacramento at Utah.
Things suddenly look worse for the already injury-plagued Trail Blazers, who couldn't find a way -- again -- to defend Nowitzki and now face the daunting task of trying to become the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit.
The Blazers have lost 10 straight playoff games -- dating to their collapse against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals.
They've lost six in a row under coach Maurice Cheeks, and a loss today would tie the NBA record of 11 consecutive postseason defeats shared by the Baltimore Bullets and Denver Nuggets.
With starting guards Scottie Pippen in street clothes and Derek Anderson out indefinitely because of a knee injury, the Blazers trailed by as many as 14 points.
They closed in on Arvydas Sabonis' short jumper and went ahead 85-84 on Zach Randolph's free throws after Eduardo Najera's foul with 32.1 seconds left in the third quarter.
The two teams traded the lead until Steve Nash's 3-pointer put the Mavericks ahead 91-87 with 9:05 left in the game. Nowitzki followed with the first in a string of three 3-pointers to help put the Mavs ahead 102-94 with 5:58 left.
Dallas never trailed again. Raef LaFrentz had 20 points for the Mavericks, while Nash finished with 12 points and 10 assists.
Pippen, Portland's on-court leader, watched from courtside for the second straight game.
Pippen had surgery on his left knee on March 18 and missed 17 games. He returned for the Blazers' final two regular-season games and played 32 minutes in the series opener, but then the pain and swelling came back.
Anderson strained his left knee three minutes into Wednesday's 103-99 loss. Cheeks said earlier Friday that Anderson had a torn meniscus and is out indefinitely.
Spurs 99, Suns 86
At Phoenix, Tony Parker, 3-for-20 in the first two games of the series, made 12 of 21 shots -- most from long range -- for a career playoff-high 29 points as San Antonio took a 2-1 lead.
Magic 89, Pistons 80
At Orlando, Florida, Tracy McGrady scored 29 points and Darrell Armstrong had 20 points to help the Magic take a 2-1 lead.
Drew Gooden added 15 points, and Gordan Giricek snapped out of a slump to score 10 points, all in a crucial third-quarter burst.
In Orlando's Game 2 loss in Detroit on Wednesday night, McGrady had 46 points.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set