PORTLAND, Ore. – Chauncey Billups stressed beforehand that his Portland Trail Blazers wouldn’t be able to throw anything at Luka Doncic that he hadn’t seen or experienced before.
Schematically, Billups certainly was right. Logically, though, Doncic in five NBA seasons never had faced a night like Saturday night in Moda Center.
That is because 48 hours earlier in Los Angeles he played a career-high 53 minutes in Dallas’ double-overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers. So it was little surprise that Doncic and other weary Mavericks delivered flat performances in Portland’s 136-119 victory.
