Hornets at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers have won six of their last eight games to pull into contention for the No. 8 spot and are trying to make the best use of a seven-game homestand. The Trail Blazers will try to earn their third win in four games on that homestand when they host the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.
Portland is battling with the Sacramento Kings for the No. 8 spot at the moment and watched as the Hornets took down the Kings in double overtime on Monday before taking care of Sacramento itself in a 112-97 victory on Tuesday. “Everybody in here would like to stay in that spot, maybe move up,” Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard told reporters after Tuesday’s triumph. “We’ve just got to stick with it. You can’t act like we made the playoffs just because if it started today we’d be in.” The Hornets followed up their big win over the Kings by falling flat in a 102-73 loss at the Utah Jazz on Wednesday, missing out on a chance to move back to .500. The only good thing about the loss was that it marked the return of shooting guard Nicolas Batum, who will get a chance to play in front of his former home fans in Portland.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Charlotte), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE HORNETS (22-24): Batum was traded by the Trail Blazers over the summer in a roster overhaul that saw four starters leave town and has fit in nicely with his new club. The 27-year-old Frenchman played his first seven seasons for Portland and is averaging career highs of 14.9 points and 5.3 assists in his first season with the Hornets. Batum sat out the three-game winning streak prior to the loss in Utah with a toe injury and contributed six points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes in his return.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (21-26): The big prizes coming back to Portland in the Batum trade were shooting guard Gerald Henderson and power forward Noah Vonleh, who combined for 25 points on 12-of-19 shooting in the 112-97 win over Sacramento on Tuesday. Vonleh, a 20-year-old former first-round pick from Indiana, is beginning to get bigger minutes and scored in double figures in back-to-back games for the first time this season in the last two contests. Henderson is coming off the bench and hit double figures in each of the last two games as well – the second time this season he scored at least 10 in back-to-back contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hornets G Jeremy Lin (ankle) and G Jeremy Lamb (toe) are both questionable.
2. Trail Blazers G C.J. McCollum is averaging 24.8 points in the last four games.
3. Batum exploded for 33 points, six assists and five rebounds in a 106-94 win over Portland at Charlotte on Nov. 15.