Trail Blazers at Kings
LaMarcus Aldridge looks to continue his stellar start to the season when the Portland Trail Blazers hit the road to face the Sacramento Kings on Friday. The All-Star forward scored 27 points as the Trail Blazers overcame a slow start to surge past the Oklahoma City Thunder 106-89 to win their 14th straight home opener. Portland has beaten Sacramento in four of the last five meetings, but the last two games have been decided by a combined five points.
The Kings opened the 2014-15 campaign with a lackluster 95-77 loss to the Golden State Warriors. Sacramento committed 26 turnovers, shot 30.8 percent from the field and was held to just 28 points in the second half as the Kings fell for the first time in their last 14 home openers. "Offensively, I'm very disappointed in the effort," coach Michael Malone told reporters. "We looked very similar to the Sacramento Kings of last season."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Comcast (Sacramento), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (1-0): Meyers Leonard missed the season opener with an upper respiratory illness and is not expected to travel with the team to Sacramento. Damian Lillard missed his first seven shots before finishing with 10 points, including two clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter against the Thunder. "It was a rough start to the game," Lillard admitted to reporters. "I just wanted to keep my mind right and impact the game somehow and the most important thing is we got the win."
ABOUT THE KINGS (0-1): DeMarcus Cousins was plagued by foul trouble, but still managed to notch a double-double with a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds in the loss to the Warriors. Nik Stauskas, who was picked eighth overall in the 2014 draft, went 2-of-7 from the 3-point line and finished with nine points in his Sacramento debut. The Kings recently broke ground on their new $477 million downtown arena that is slated for completion by the start of the 2016-17 season.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Trail Blazers were 3-1 versus the Kings last season with their lone loss coming at Sleep Train Arena.
2. Cousins holds the record for the most double-doubles in a single season in the Sacramento era with 53 last year.
3. Lillard scored a career-high 41 points versus the Kings on Jan.7.