Lakers at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are pulling out of a lengthy funk and will try to carry some momentum into the All-Star break when they host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. The Trail Blazers are coming off a strong performance in a win at Houston and have taken three of four after finishing January with eight losses in 10 games. The Lakers are losers of five straight and 14 of 15 after falling at home to Denver on Tuesday.
Portland guard Damian Lillard was named to the All-Star team as an injury replacement for Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin and is slowly pulling out of a shooting funk. Lillard is at 47.5 percent from the field in four games this month after failing to reach 40 percent in any of the last eight games in January and was 6-of-10 from the field in Sunday’s 109-98 win at Houston. The job of guarding Lillard will likely fall on Los Angeles rookie Jordan Clarkson, who struggled to defend Denver’s Ty Lawson on Tuesday.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, TWC SportsNet (Los Angeles), KGW (Portland)
ABOUT THE LAKERS (13-39): Los Angeles has lost 10 straight on the road and is looking for any signs that it might be breaking out of the funk. Clarkson was providing one of the few bright spots with back-to-back games in double figures but slumped to seven points on 3-of-11 shooting Tuesday and was lifted down the stretch in favor of Jeremy Lin. The Lakers are struggling at the defensive end and allowed 35 fourth-quarter points to Denver en route to a fourth straight game yielding more than 100 points.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (35-17): Guard Wesley Matthews will take part in the 3-point contest during All-Star weekend but Lillard will not, and his 7-of-45 effort from beyond the arc in the last six games has dropped his 3-point percentage to 34.2. Matthews has hit multiple 3-pointers in each of the last 12 games and is looking forward to going up against the rest of the field. “This is the first time actually doing it, but the ball’s not moving,” Matthews told reporters after getting in some practice. “You’re not worried about anything else; you’re just grabbing the ball. So it was fine for me.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The road team has taken five of the last six in the series, with the lone outlier a 98-94 home victory for the Trail Blazers on Jan. 5.
2. Portland C Chris Kaman (ankle) is not expected to play Wednesday.
3. Los Angeles F Ryan Kelly is 2-of-14 from the field in the last two games.