PORTLAND — The fourth-quarter push was there. So was the deafening crowd noise and big-time plays from big-time players.
Everything necessary for the Trail Blazers to extend their first-round playoff series to seven games was present Thursday night. Except the magic.
The magic wouldn’t drop Wesley Matthews’ open 3-pointer through the net late in the game. It wouldn’t coax the Dirk Nowitzki fadeaways into clanking off the iron either.
The injury-riddled Blazers were forced to wear a lot hats this year, but in a 103-96 season-ending loss to the Mavericks, they couldn’t pull a rabbit out of one.
“I just felt like we were going to come back, almost even more than the last time, it felt even more like we were going to win this one,” said Blazers guard Brandon Roy, whose team lost in the first round four games to two for the third consecutive year. “I think the difference is, they made plays.”
When the game begin, it didn’t look as though a Portland comeback would be necessary.
Confessing he had been down on himself for his diminutive offensive production throughout the series, Blazers forward Gerald Wallace scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds in the first period to put Portland up by eight. But then, in a bit of a black magic act, he disappeared — retreating to the locker room for lower-back pain that would keep him out of the game for the rest of the first half.
His absence was felt. Dallas outscored the Blazers 33-16 over the next 12 minutes and took a nine-point lead into halftime. Wallace, who said his back locked up on him late in the first quarter, admitted that he felt he let his team down by exiting the game. One quarter later, the Mavericks led by 13.
Not unfamiliar territory for Portland.
Two games earlier, as anyone with a 503, 971 or 360 area code knows, Roy led a miraculous comeback by scoring 18 points in the final period to erase a 23-point deficit and tie the series at 2-2.
And for a minute — actually, several minutes — it appeared as if the Rose Garden crowd might be getting an encore. Two minutes and eleven seconds into the fourth quarter, a 13-point deficit had been reduced to seven. Every time the ball went up, it went through the bucket. Unfortunately for the Blazers, this applied to Dallas as well.
Including free throws, there was a stretch in the fourth quarter in which 11 consecutive shots between both teams went in. Three of those were field goals by Nowitzki, who mixed in impossible fall-aways with an open 20 footer to keep Portland at bay.
Temporarily.
After Nowitzki finally missed, the Blazers mounted a six-point run — starting with two free throws from Matthews, and ending with a layup and a dunk from Wallace to cut the lead to one point.
But that’s when the magic took a furlough. Jason Kidd came down on the following possession and hit a back-breaking 3-pointer to put the Mavericks up by four. Jason Terry followed with a jumper. And while Wallace was able to reduce the lead to four points with a pair of foul shots of his own, LaMarcus Aldridge bricked two free throws with 2:33 left that could have made it a two-point game.
Nerves? Aldridge said no.
“Those were the best feeling free throws I’d had in a while. Those free throws felt great,” Aldridge said. “That first went long and I overcompensated with the second. But I have to make those.”
The Blazers, who have never come back from a 3-2 deficit in a playoff series, would not recover.
Nowitzki led all scorers with 33 points, going 11 of 17 from the field while grabbing 11 rebounds. Wallace led Portland with 32 points and 12 rebounds, while Aldridge posted 24 points and 10 rebounds on 11 of 25 shooting.
Terry added 22 points for Dallas, which will meet the Lakers in the second round.
After the game, the Blazers occupied a dejected locker room. Rudy Fernandez held his hand over his face as though on the brink of tears. Patty Mills gazed straight up at the ceiling, while Nicolas Batum slouched in his chair almost motionless.
“It’s tough,” Batum said. “We had the team to do it.”
Through much of the season, however, the Blazers didn’t look like they had the team to advance to the second round or even make the playoffs. Knee injuries to Greg Oden and Roy blindsided them in November and December, causing expectations to free fall.
Perhaps that’s why Aldridge said that while Portland had goals that extended far beyond the first round, “it was a good year.”
Blazers coach Nate McMillan echoed the sentiment.
“You’re never ready for this moment where the season is over. It’s like it just creeps up on you and all of a sudden, tomorrow, you’re going home,” McMillan said. “So basically, as I told them, I appreciate their effort. I really respect how they played all season long.”
