Portland Trail Blazers Team Report - February 29

(Basketball News) - The Portland Trail Blazers dropped below the .500 mark on Saturday, as they found themselves on the wrong end of a 111-91 decision against Dallas Mavericks at the AmericanAirlines Center.

Zach Randolph had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who have dropped two in a row following a five-game win streak. Damon Stoudamire added 16 points and eight assists in the loss.

Portland trailed by 18 at the half and went down by as many as 22 points in the third quarter.The Blazers closed the gap to 10, 80-70, entering the fourth and a dunk by Darius Miles pulled Portland within 84-77 with 9:04 to play.

However, the Mavericks answered with a 23-11 surge to pull away for good.

Miles finished with 16 points while Derek Anderson had 14 and Shareef Abdur- Rahim netted 13 for the Blazers, who shot 40 percent (32-of-80) from the field. Portland went 5-of-16 from beyond the arc and 22-of-26 from the foul line.

At 29-30 Portland is 2 1/2 games behind eighth-place Denver for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Blazers, who will kick off a three-game homestand on Wednesday against Memphis, fell for just the third time in eight tries on the road and slipped to 11-20 away from home this season.