Trail Blazers at Nuggets
The Portland Trail Blazers hope to get guard Damian Lillard back when they visit the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, and his full participation in practice Saturday was a step in the right direction. Lillard, who leads Portland in scoring at 24.6 points per game, missed the last six contests because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot after playing the first 275 games of his career without interruption, and his status will be determined during Sunday morning's shootaround.
"The biggest problem was being winded," Lillard told reporters after Saturday's practice. "If I can say that, I'm happy with it. ... I was running, jumping, sprinting, guarding pick-and-rolls. I did everything." The Trail Blazers had their three-game winning streak snapped with a 109-96 loss at Utah on Thursday - their sixth setback in their last seven road games. Denver gave defending champion Golden State all it could handle Saturday and nearly snapped the Warriors' 33-game home winning streak before falling 111-108 in overtime for its fifth straight loss and eighth in the last nine contests. The Nuggets welcomed the return of Danilo Gallinari (team-high 17.5 points per game), who recorded 24 points in 41 minutes Saturday in his first contest since missing six because of an ankle injury.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), Altitude (Denver)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (14-21): Guards C.J. McCollum (21 points per game) and Allen Crabbe (11) have picked up the scoring slack in Lillard's absence with McCollum averaging 26.2 in the last five contests and Crabbe 20.4 during the last six. Portland has a plus-56 rebounding advantage during its last seven contests with Mason Plumlee averaging a team-best 8.3 for the season. Plumlee (9.3 points) has a team-best 10 double-doubles after recording 12 in 2014-15.
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (12-22): Kenneth Faried (12.6 points, team-best 9.0 rebounds) had 15 and 12 on Saturday and is averaging 14.3 and 10.8 during his last four games, but left late in overtime with an apparent neck injury and was to spend the night in a hospital for observation. Will Barton recorded 21 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists Saturday and is averaging 16.82 points — an NBA-high among bench players, just ahead of New Orleans' Ryan Anderson (16.78). Center Jusuf Nurkic made his season debut Saturday after recovering from a partially torn left patellar tendon, but played only five minutes.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Lillard also averages 6.8 assists and is one of three players (Russell Westbrook, James Harden) to rank in the top 10 in scoring and assists.
2. McCollum has averaged 9.1 points on 58.1 percent shooting and is 20-for-31 from 3-point range during the first quarter of his last 11 games.
3. The teams split the first two of four meetings this season, with Portland prevailing 110-103 on Wednesday behind McCollum's 29 points and Denver snapping an eight-game losing streak in the series with a 108-104 victory Nov 9.