Portland, Ore. ? Dirk Nowitzki did it all again, moving the Dallas Mavericks within one victory of reaching the second round.

Nowitzki had 42 points, including three three-pointers in the final quarter, as the Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-103, Friday night to take a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Nowitzki, who had a career-high 46 points in the opener, also had 10 rebounds for the Mavericks, who can advance with a victory in Game 4 in Portland Sunday.

Things don’t look good for the injury-plagued Trail Blazers, who couldn’t find a way to defend Nowitzki and now face the task of trying to become the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

Raef LaFrentz had 20 points for the Mavericks, while Steve Nash finished with 12 points and 10 assists.

The Blazers have lost 10 straight playoff games — dating back to their collapse against the Lakers in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals in 2000.

They’ve lost six in a row under coach Maurice Cheeks, and a loss Sunday would tie the NBA record of 11 consecutive postseason defeats shared by the Baltimore Bullets and Denver Nuggets.

With Scottie Pippen in street clothes and Derek Anderson out of the playoffs indefinitely because of a knee injury, the Blazers trailed by as many as 14.

But they closed in on the Mavs on Arvydas Sabonis’ short jumper and went ahead 85-84 on Zach Randolph’s free throws after Eduardo Najera’s foul with 32.1 seconds left in the third quarter.