The overly smooth first quarter made the Trail Blazers slightly lower their guard, including Ramsay.
After the start of the second quarter, he used the second lineup for too long, wanting to give more practice to the backcourt black triangle of Kossie-Drexler-Kolter.
The Trail Blazers started with two white players in the guard and forward positions, who lacked hardness on the defense end. Kolter and Kossie were the backups Ramsay was focusing on developing.
Taking advantage of the rotation lineup's weaker defense, the Mavericks' substitutes Derek Harper and Dale Ellis scored consecutively, gradually cutting the 23-point lead down to under 20 points, then to 15.
