Exciting finish in loss to Mavericks

--The Blazers nearly benefitted from a missed free throw in the second overtime Saturday night.

Portland guard Wesley Matthews was fouled on a drive with 11.4 seconds to go and made the first free throw to cut Dallas' lead to 97-94. He unintentionally missed the second attempt, but forward Gerald Wallace tied up the Mavericks' Shawn Marion for the rebound. The Blazers controlled the tip, but guard Jamal Crawford's off-balance, contested 3-point attempt bounced off the backboard at the buzzer.

--Forward LaMarcus Aldridge was sensational for Portland (15-13), scoring 33 points and collaring 12 rebounds in his 51 minutes. Aldridge was 14-for-26 from the field; his teammates combined to make only 22-of-71 attempts (.307).

"He did a good job," McMillan said. "You have big guys (guarding) him, and they were mixing up double-teams, so we were trying to move him around. He was able to get some things in the paint. He gave all he had tonight."

QUOTE TO NOTE
"We had to fight. We needed to play more physical than we were playing the first half. We scrapped and put up a fight the second half and fought our way back into the game. We just didn't finish it." -- Portland coach Nate McMillan, on the Blazers' rally from an 18-point second-quarter deficit to force Saturday's game with Dallas into two overtimes.

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