Trail Blazers at Timberwolves
The Portland Trail Blazers will begin life without Wesley Matthews when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. Matthews suffered a torn left Achilles tendon in a win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday and soon will have surgery before beginning a lengthy rehab process. Portland is battling for third place in the Western Conference and will need to find a way to replace one of the premier 3-point shooters in the league.
“You can’t make up for Wes Matthews,” Damian Lillard told reporters, “but we can have guys, multiple guys, come in and do things to still help the team play at a high level.” In the short term, Portland likely will push new acquisition Arron Afflalo into the starting lineup next to Lillard. The West-worst Timberwolves are trying to avoid going winless on a four-game homestand and have dropped four in a row overall.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (41-19): A team looking for a replacement for its starting shooting guard could do a lot worse than Afflalo, who is averaging 13.9 points this season and is a career 38.4 percent 3-point shooter, but pushing the veteran into the starting lineup leaves another big hole on the bench. “I’m frustrated man; I’m frustrated,” Matthews told reporters “You say everything happens for a reason and again, I was up in that (MRI) tube, I was just thinking: What was this reason? What was it? I can’t find it right now. But it’s bigger than me, and this team has got something special still. I believe in that; I feel that they do, too. We’ll all weather this.” Matthews is fourth in the NBA with 173 made 3-pointers and was averaging 15.9 points for Portland, which has won five straight.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (13-47): Minnesota got a little bump when Kevin Garnett made his debut in a 97-77 home win over Washington on Feb. 25 but has dropped the four games since and continues to tinker with the fringes of the roster. The Timberwolves claimed forward Justin Hamilton off waivers from the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday and expect to have him in the lineup Saturday to help cover over injuries in the frontcourt to Nikola Pekovic (ankle) and Anthony Bennett (ankle). “I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do,” Hamilton told reporters. “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s 10, 20, 30 minutes. It’s just a matter of getting on the floor and playing.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Afflalo is 5-of-20 from the field in the last three games.
2. Timberwolves G Gary Neal injured his hand in practice Friday and is day-to-day.
3. Portland had a four-game winning streak in the series come to an end with a 90-82 loss at Minnesota on Dec. 10.