Trail Blazers at Raptors
The Portland Trail Blazers’ express train came to a screeching halt in Boston on Wednesday, but the Western Conference playoff hopefuls will get another chance to prove they can tangle with the East’s elite. The Trail Blazers will try to bounce back from a rare loss when they visit the second-place Toronto Raptors on Friday.
Portland won the first three in a stretch of four road games in five nights but could not come up the energy necessary to hang with the Celtics in a 116-93 setback and ended up with their third loss in the last 17 games. “They played very well defensively, they pushed the tempo on offense, they got after the boards,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters of Boston. “They beat us in a lot of the aspects of the game.” Portland now gets to face one of the other two teams to knock them off in the last 17 games in the Raptors, who took a 110-103 decision at the Trail Blazers on Feb. 4 behind 30 points from Kyle Lowry. Toronto’s All-Star point guard scored 32 points on Wednesday as the Raptors cruised past Utah 104-94 to earn their 11th consecutive home victory.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), TSN (Toronto)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (33-29): The rigors of the recent schedule make it easy to brush off Wednesday’s loss, but star guard Damian Lillard wasn’t willing to use fatigue as an excuse. “They played harder than us to start the second half and we just weren’t good enough,” Lillard told reporters. “We didn’t do a lot of the things that we’ve been doing at the level we’ve been doing them. You can’t go out there and let a team, at home, compete harder than you and not execute the game plan coming in.” Lillard’s superb all-around play of late has lifted Portland into a battle for the No. 6 spot in the West, and it remains four games clear of the ninth-place Jazz.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (40-19): Lowry scored a career-high 43 points in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last Friday and got Sunday off to rest for his efforts, only to watch the team struggle without him in a 114-101 loss at the Detroit Pistons. Lowry was back with his All-Star backcourt partner DeMar DeRozan on Wednesday, and the two showed off how dynamic they are together with a combined 63 points on 24-of-35 shooting. “It’s very comfortable to have the two All-Stars but again, it’s a 48-minute game,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey told reporters. “We can’t live on the roller coaster going up and down. We got to get some consistency but again it’s great to have Kyle and DeMar get what you need offensively.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors F Patrick Patterson scored seven or fewer points in each of his last five games and is coming off a 1-of-9 effort from the floor on Wednesday.
2. Lillard had a streak of 48 straight made free throws come to an end on Wednesday, when he went 1-of-2 from the line.
3. Toronto’s win in Portland on Feb. 4 snapped a four-game losing streak in the series.