Grizzlies at Trail Blazers
Standout point guard Damian Lillard is expected to be back in the lineup Monday when the Portland Trail Blazers host the Memphis Grizzlies.
Lillard has missed the past seven games with plantar fasciitis in his
left foot and was a late scratch for Sunday's 112-106 win over the
Denver Nuggets.
Lillard had never missed an NBA game in his three-plus seasons in the league prior to the injury and is itching to return. He indicated before Sunday's game that he needed to make sure his conditioning was up to par and apparently the pregame workout didn't give him the answer he wanted. Memphis suffered a 92-87 overtime loss to Utah on Saturday to open a three-game road trip that concludes in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. The Grizzlies have scored fewer than 100 points in four of their last five games and rank 29th in the NBA in scoring at 96.2 points per game.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBATV, FSN Southeast (Memphis), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (18-17): Memphis split a pair of contests against Portland in the first half of November and came dangerously close to going 0-2. Courtney Lee and Jeff Green each missed go-ahead shots in the second meeting before power forward Zach Randolph collected a rebound and put in the winning points with 0.6 seconds left for a 101-100 victory. Center Marc Gasol scored 31 points in the contest, and that's his second-highest output of the campaign.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (15-21): Portland has won four of its last five games and guard C.J. McCollum has picked up both the scoring and passing slack with Lillard on the sidelines. McCollum had 25 points and seven assists in the victory over the Nuggets and is averaging 30.3 points and 6.5 assists during the past four games. "Damian needs to come back," McCollum said after the Denver game. "I think it's about time. The foot, I think it's healed."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Grizzlies have won five of their last seven visits to Portland but the Trail Blazers won the most-recent meeting 115-96 on Nov. 5.
2. Memphis SF Matt Barnes returns from a two-game suspension for an offseason altercation with New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher.
3. Portland SF/SG Allen Crabbe is averaging 16.6 points in the seven games Lillard has missed.