The Dallas Mavericks demolished the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, 130-110. As usual, Luka Doncic has kept his regular MVP showing, registering 33 markers, nine boards, and six assists to lead the wire-to-wire campaign.
But this dominant victory won’t be that truly possible if Christian Wood didn’t show up when it mattered the most.
With Maxi Kleber remaining out due to an apparent leg injury, Wood is seizing every added opportunity to produce and be exposed within the court. The Mavs’ prized asset from the last offseason served as a matchup nightmare for the Blazers with his gifted offensive talent and versatility.
Wood was already feeling it in the first half, going off with 20 markers before halftime had hit the clock. As such, he put up the finishing touches and logged off a strong 32 points and 12 boards – all of these while coming off the bench in 30 minutes of play.
“I thought C-Wood was great, offensively and defensively,” coach Jason Kidd said, via Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “Being able to play through him in the second quarter was huge for us.
“Talking to him yesterday, he’s starting to feel comfortable on the defensive end, which showed this evening. He was huge for us. Being able to get rebounds and being able to play through him … for 13, 14 straight minutes there, he was good.”
For Wood, he is only looking to be much more aggressive as he is assigned to come off the bench as Dallas’ prime weapon from the secondary unit.
“I was trying to be aggressive,” Wood said postgame. “The team knew I had it going. We kept running the same play over and over and over because, frankly, they couldn’t really stop it. My teammates trust me to score and that’s what I was brought here for and I feel like I did a great job today.”
The Mavericks will look to build up their recent dub as they start their four-game road trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
