Suns at Trail Blazers
Aron Baynes aims to turn in another huge performance against Portland when the Phoenix Suns visit the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night. The 33-year-old Baynes established career bests of 37 points and nine 3-pointers as the Suns earned a 127-117 home win over Portland last Friday.
Baynes was starting in place of center Deandre Ayton (ankle) and also collected 16 rebounds in the stellar outing, which came after he didn't even enter the previous game against the Toronto Raptors. "It can be funny in the NBA like that," Baynes told reporters. "Night to night, it can be completely different. One thing we've done well as a team is a next-man-up mentality." The Suns have won two straight games against Portland after losing the previous 11 and the Trail Blazers are in a rut after Saturday's 123-111 home loss to the Sacramento Kings was their eighth in the past 11 contests. "We didn't play like a desperate team, a team fighting for a playoff spot," Portland coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "It's tough to win in this league, much less when you don't compete as hard as you can."
TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: FS Arizona, NBCS Northwest, NBA TV Canada
ABOUT THE SUNS (26-38): Baynes enjoyed another strong outing when he had 24 points and four 3-pointers in Sunday's impressive 140-131 home victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. He was one of four players to top 20 points as shooting guard Devin Booker registered 36 points and eight assists, point guard Ricky Rubio recorded 25 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists for his seventh career triple double, and forward Mikal Bridges scored 21 points. "You could just tell right from the start of the game," Booker said afterward. "The energy, the aura around the locker room and the passion everyone showed. Even when we were up a lot, we are playing the right way, and when they make a run, we are playing the right way."
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (28-37): Portland trailed Sacramento 77-54 at halftime in the poor showing that occurred in the opener of a six-game homestand. "I thought we played like a team that was coming home," Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard said of his team's poor effort. "It was like we were counting on being on our home floor to kind of go in our direction and they came out aggressive, in attack mode on fire, and jumped out to a big lead. We had a hard time getting back into it." Lillard had a shaky night by scoring 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting, including 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Lillard is averaging 28 points and six assists in this season's three meetings with the Suns.
2. Portland SG CJ McCollum scored 19 points against the Kings to end a 10-game streak of scoring at least 20.
3. Baynes has made 58 3-pointers this season after entering the season with just 25.