Kings at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off their worst performance of the season and will look to rebound when they host the Sacramento Kings on Friday. Portland gave a putrid effort against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday and trailed by as many as 48 points before succumbing 111-80.
The Trail Blazers posted a season-low point total against the Clippers and coach Terry Stotts had no explanation for such a poor showing. "Look, we got our butts kicked," Stotts said afterward. "The Clippers played very well at both ends of the court. We had trouble scoring all night. It was a frustrating night, and I don't know what we can take away from this one other than the fact that we got beat by a better team." Sacramento missed an opportunity to reach the .500 mark on Thursday when it was outworked and outscored by 20 points in the second half during a 101-91 home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. "It's pretty sad when opposing teams let it be known what their game plan is, which is to be physical or hit me or whatever the case may be, and kind of get away with it," Kings center DeMarcus Cousins said afterward.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, CSN California (Sacramento), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE KINGS (4-6): Cousins scored 28 points against the Lakers for his eighth 20-point outing of the campaign and has his own theory for why Sacramento collapsed over the latter half of the contest. "How can I say this?" Cousins told reporters before pausing. "Played a little more tender, I guess you could say." After the visit to Portland, the Kings have time to regroup and don't play again until Wednesday when they face the San Antonio Spurs in the opener of a five-game stretch at home.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (5-4): Portland has committed an average of 17 turnovers over the past two games and standout guards Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum were each held to eight points against Los Angeles, representing season lows for each player after they had combined for 71 points the previous night against Phoenix. "We could go watch film and we could pick apart every single thing we did wrong," Lillard told reporters. "It's also just one of those games. We weren't making shots. We didn't execute well." Lillard is averaging 30 points and has five 30-point outings while McCollum is averaging 21.2 points with five 20-point performances.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Trail Blazers went 4-0 against the Kings last season and have won the past six meetings.
2. Sacramento PG Darren Collison is just 6-of-20 shooting in two games since returning from an eight-game suspension for a domestic violence incident.
3. Portland SF Al-Farouq Aminu (calf) will miss his second consecutive contest.