Trail Blazers' late collapse is an indictment on their head coach

The Blazers had a 10-point lead on the Mavericks with 4:33 to go before Dallas went on its run. On five straight Mavericks possessions, the Blazers committed a shooting foul, while the Blazers missed a series of difficult shots, turned the ball over and picked up a delay-of-game warning.

Even though the Blazers had three timeouts left, Chauncey Billups simply let the meltdown happen. He didn't call timeout until P.J. Washington's three-pointer gave Dallas its first lead since the 6:54 mark in the second quarter.

The only move Billups made was to substitute center Donovan Clingan for Kris Murray. He kept starting center Deandre Ayton on the bench for all but two minutes of the final quarter. Meanwhile, Dallas' Dereck Lively went for 13 points and seven rebounds in the fourth.

Perhaps the most indefensible coaching move happened after Toumani Camara dunked to cut the Mavs' lead to four points with 27 seconds to go. Billups and the Blazers let 16 seconds run off the clock before committing a foul anyway, leaving his team 10 seconds to deal with a six-point deficit.

It's not like Billups is a rookie coach. This is his fourth year coaching the Blazers, a span during which he's lost more than two-thirds of his games (94-189). Perhaps he's under orders from management to tank to get his team a better draft pick because otherwise his decisions Thursday night were inexplicable. His contract expires after this season, and it's hard to see his coaching career continuing after these unimpressive four seasons.

Billups is a Hall of Famer as a player, but he hasn't risen anywhere near that level as a coach. The young Blazers who fought their way to a big lead over the defending Western Conference champions deserve better.