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.
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