Portland @ Dallas preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 20, 2018 ) Dallas 108, Portland 117

The Portland Trail Blazers ran their home winning streak to seven in a row with an impressive win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, but the road has proven to be tougher to tame. The Trail Blazers will try to snap a four-game road slide when they open a stretch with five of six away from home by visiting the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.

Portland put up 43 points in the third quarter on Wednesday and skipped past the Timberwolves 123-114. "I think in the last two years, that's probably the best quarter," Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard told reporters of the third. "When we watch film and we're in training camp and stuff like that, if we could just watch that whole quarter, in training camp they would say, 'This how we want to play, this is how the ball needs to move, this is how we need to screen, this is the pace we need to have and what's going to allow us to do it is defending the way we did.' That was a showcase, it was a great display of Blazer basketball." The Mavericks went in the other direction in the third quarter against Houston on Wednesday, getting outscored 34-22 in the frame and going on to lose 104-97. "These guys are really good, and they hit you hard and hit you quick," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told reporters of Houston. "So, we needed to be better in those moments early first (quarter) and early third (quarter). I thought we did a few good things. We just didn't have enough tonight."

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Northwest (Portland), FS Southwest (Dallas)

ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (26-22): Lillard celebrated being named to the All-Star team with 31 points on Wednesday and is averaging 28.8 points on 53.3 percent shooting over the last five games. The 27-year-old, who scored 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting in a 117-108 home win over Dallas on Saturday, added six assists without a turnover against the Timberwolves. "I thought we played with great energy," Lillard told reporters. "We flew around on the defensive end. Even at the start of the game when they were making shots, I thought our energy was good energy. We moved the ball and I thought it was just a complete effort."

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (16-32): Dallas shooting guard Wesley Matthews scored 29 points on Wednesday but had no interest in talking about his individual achievements. "We've got to play with force on the offensive end and on the defensive end, especially on the defensive end, not making things easy and making people uncomfortable," Matthews told reporters in assessing the weaknesses of a Dallas team that dropped four of its last five games. Matthews, who spent five seasons in Portland before signing with the Mavericks prior to the 2015-16 season, scored 23 points against his former team on Saturday.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Mavericks PF Dirk Nowitzki is 6-of-10 from 3-point range over the last three games.

2. Trail Blazers SG CJ McCollum went 12-of-20 from the floor Wednesday after slumping to 3-of-14 at Denver on Monday.

3. Dallas PG J.J. Barea is 9-of-36 from the floor over his last four games and scored in double figures in only one of those contests -- 12 points at Portland on Saturday.

PREDICTION: Trail Blazers 111, Mavericks 106