Timberwolves at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are fighting for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference and can’t afford to overlook a Minnesota Timberwolves squad that is playing its best basketball at the end of the season. The Timberwolves will try to earn a third straight win and put a dent in the Trail Blazers’ postseason plans when they visit Portland on Saturday.
Minnesota looked as though it had checked out for the rest of the season during a three-game slide but woke up on the road trip with the biggest upset of the season in a 124-117 overtime victory at NBA-best Golden State on Tuesday. The Timberwolves avoided a letdown by burying 11-of-21 3-point attempts and forcing 20 turnovers in a 105-97 win at Sacramento on Thursday. The Trail Blazers clinched their spot in the playoffs and appear set to finish no lower than sixth in the conference, but they want the No. 5 seed and the right to avoid the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. "We want the five," center Mason Plumlee told the team’s official website. "Also, we want to go into playoffs playing really well, hitting all your notes. ... Just tightening everything up."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN North (Minnesota), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (27-52): Minnesota came from 17 points down to force overtime and knock off the defending champs and was seeking to prove the win was no fluke. "You want to follow up a good win," interim coach Sam Mitchell told reporters. "There's a natural tendency when you're a young team - all people - to let your guard down and become complacent when you have a little success." Minnesota got double-doubles from the frontcourt duo of Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns on Thursday while Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine combined for 33 points out of the backcourt.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (43-37): Portland replaced four of its five starters after finishing 51-31 last season and was not expected to even challenge for a playoff spot in 2015-16. Instead, the Trail Blazers overcame a slow start and coalesced behind the high-scoring backcourt combo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. "It’s a young roster, a lot of players in position to do things that they hadn’t been in position to do before in their career,” Portland coach Terry Stotts told reporters. “Expectations, that was a long time ago. I think it’s the fact that we came back from whatever our record was in December and put together a run and stayed with the process and grew as a team. Players got better and it’s very rewarding.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Timberwolves rookie F Nemanja Bjelica went 6-of-7 from the field and 4-of-5 from 3-point range en route to a season-high 18 points on Thursday.
2. Trail Blazers SF Al-Farouq Aminu scored 20 or more points in three of the last seven games.
3. Portland has taken four straight in the series but each of the three meetings this season were decided by six or fewer points.