Clippers at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are living on the edge defensively but are doing enough on offense to make up for continued lapses on the other end. The Los Angeles Clippers have the pieces to exploit those holes defensively and will attempt to do just that when they visit Portland on Thursday. The Clippers should come into the contest with some motivation after seeing a five-game winning streak come to an end in a contentious loss on Wednesday.
The Trail Blazers are allowing an average of 110.2 points over the last six games but are 5-1 in that span thanks to some heroics from Damian Lillard and an offense that leads the league in scoring. “It’s more difficult to run when you’re taking the ball out of the net and their defense is set,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “…It’s like that for every team, you get stops, you get out and that’s how there are swings in the game.” Los Angeles came out on the wrong end of a swing on Wednesday, when it controlled the first half before falling short in the second against Golden State.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT, Prime Ticket (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (20-10): Los Angeles will likely get a few calls from the league office after its battle with the Warriors that included a total of four technical fouls, two flagrant fouls and a scrum after the final buzzer sounded. Blake Griffin was ejected less than two minutes into the fourth quarter after receiving his second technical foul and Chris Paul could not carry the team down the stretch by himself, missing three shots in the final 41 seconds that would have tied the game. Paul has posted four straight double-doubles but is shooting just 36.7 percent from the field in that span.
ABOUT THE BLAZERS (23-5): Portland is tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the best record in the Western Conference and a good portion of the credit for that goes to Lillard, who is showing improvement on the form that won him Rookie of the Year last season. “(Lillard) takes it upon himself when he needs to,” Stotts said. “He’s fearless taking the ball to the basket. He makes big shots, competes defensively. Damian kind of speaks for himself. It’s not like we should even be surprised by it anymore.” Lillard is averaging 33.7 points while going 19-for-36 from beyond the arc in the last three games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Clippers took three of the four meetings last season while limiting the Blazers to an average of 87.8 points.
2. Los Angeles PG Darren Collison has scored in double figures in five straight games.
3. Portland G Mo Williams (hip) sat out practice on Monday and is questionable.