The Dallas Mavericks will be looking to hand the Portland Trail Blazers their fourth straight loss as they face off tonight at the Moda Center. The Mavericks are coming off of a loss in Denver, but are hoping to get a win against a Portland team who is playing on the second night of a back-to-back and has currently lost three games in a row.

 

Despite the loss in Denver, the Mavs were happy to see the return of point guard J.J. Barea.

 

The Mavericks have been depleted with injuries all season, but seeing Barea go out there and get 11 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds was very prominent for the veteran point guard.

 

“It was fun, I missed it,” Barea said. “I was excited before the game. I didn’t know how I was going to feel, but it was fun and I felt better than I thought I was going to feel.”

 

As the Mavericks get ready to take on the Trail Blazers to begin a potential playoff run. The Mavs lost the to Blazers last month at the AAC in which Damian Lillard went off. He scored 42 points off of 12-18 from the field. The Mavs will have to look at finding a way to slow him down to have a strong chance of winning this game.

 

It has been a long hard season for the Mavs. They have been in last place in the Western Conference for most of the season. With that said, the Mavs are only 5 games out of the final playoff sport with 54 games left in the regular season. Though it seems unlikely for a comeback, the Mavs are getting healthy which could help them avoid team tank and try to get to the playoffs for the 15th time in 16 years.

 

The Mavericks have upgraded Dirk Nowitzki to questionable for tonight’s game against Portland.