Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Wednesday night in Dallas, the Portland Trail Blazers were trounced by the Dallas Mavericks, 126-97. The fact that the Blazers were never able to stay up with the Mavericks meant that the game was always certain. During the starters’ stint, Dallas simply destroyed Portland, building a 30-point advantage as early as the third quarter.

There isn’t really any gameplay to analyze here as a result. The Blazers, who rank among the poorest clubs in the league, had a particularly poor performance tonight. Nearly at full strength, the Mavericks didn’t mess about tonight and didn’t let Portland to enter the game. It’s the kind of victory you want to see from a club aiming to guarantee itself a playoff seed in the top six.

With 41 points, Luka Doncic led all scorers. In addition to his 29 points, Kyrie Irving pulled down nine rebounds. Off the bench, Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 14 points. With sixteen, Shaedon Sharpe led the Blazers.

Three ideas from the game are as follows:

Kyrie brushed off the rust.

Irving was impressive in his second game back, particularly in the opening minutes. 22 points were scored by him in the first half. The other star player on the Mavericks back court appeared to be performing at a level similar to his pre-injury performance. Dallas needs his output badly to maintain their competitiveness and allow Doncic to take a break. Irving will undoubtedly regain his rhythm with a pair of exhibition games versus Portland.

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The Mavericks frequently reached the line

The Mavericks have very little chance of losing to the Blazers tonight. They made 50% of their shots overall and 43% from long range. They yet put their heads down, drove to the rim, and forced fouls in spite of this. 41 free throws were made by them. Unfortunately, the same old Dallas free throw ghosts haunted them at the charity stripe, as they only shot 70 percent on these freebies. Fortunately, it was irrelevant tonight.

Lively’s ankle is twisted—again

Lively went down in the third quarter after twisting his ankle. The Mavericks called it a sprained ankle and he didn’t return to the game. Lively missed four games already when spraining the same ankle against these same Blazers a few weeks ago. Dallas really missed his presence in the paint while he was out. Dwight Powell will be around, of course, but Maxi Kleber is out, and as far as I can tell, Jason Kidd has forgotten Richaun Holmes is on the roster, so the Mavericks’ big man rotation is severely compromised if Lively misses more games.