Trail Blazers-Mavericks Game 6 NBA Playoffs Preview.

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If the Trail Blazers demonstrated anything this season, it's that they're not about to let a little challenge throw them off.

Portland has become adept at surpassing expectations.

But the ultimate test of the team's resolve will come Thursday night, when the Trail Blazers face elimination trailing 3-2 in their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks.

"When you get in these loser-out games, sometimes everybody tries to do it all, and then you get out of character," guard Brandon Roy said on Wednesday. "So the biggest thing tomorrow is that we stay in character and don't panic if they get up two points or we're up two. We need to play within our game plan like we've done all season, and we can beat this team."

Perhaps nothing demonstrates the Blazers' ability to deal with adversity more than their last win in the series. Down 67-44 in the third quarter, Roy led his team on a stunning comeback for an 84-82 Game 4 victory on Saturday.

Roy, a three-time All-Star who had been troubled by his knees all season and came on as a reserve, finished with 24 points -- 18 in the fourth quarter.

For Roy, there was satisfaction in the performance given what he had gone through.

In early December, it became apparent that something was amiss for Roy, the face of the franchise. It was later learned that the cartilage in both of his knees was so depleted that he was nearly playing bone-on-bone.

While the condition is something that will likely dog him for the rest of his career, Roy opted to have arthroscopic surgery on both knees in January. All told, he missed 35 regular-season games.

When Roy returned from surgery, LaMarcus Aldridge had taken over as the team's top playmaker, and second-year guard Wesley Matthews had taken his spot in the starting rotation. Roy's minutes were tightly controlled off the bench.

As they had with other key injuries -- most notably to centers Greg Oden and Marcus Camby -- the Blazers picked themselves up and moved on. They made the necessarily adjustments, and helped themselves by adding forward Gerald Wallace from Charlotte at the trade deadline, to wind up the sixth seed in the Western Conference.