Coming into the night, the Dallas Mavericks were a whopping 0-4 on the season and nothing much changed as Dallas lost again at home to a young Portland team.
With news coming out before tip-off that Andrew Bogut would be missing the game due to personal reasons, Rick Carlisle inserted J.J. Barea into the starting lineup as the Mavs went small. With Wesley Matthews taking on the task of guarding Damian Lillard, Nowitzki moved to center to guard Mason Plumlee.
The first quarter started off on a rough note as Portland took an early 6-0 lead that looked to set the tone for another depressing night for the Mavs.