Trail Blazers at Pistons
The Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers are two teams that can't afford to let losses pile up as they both attempt to earn a playoff berth in their respective conferences. The Trail Blazers will try to avoid a seventh loss in nine games when they visit the Pistons on Tuesday.
While the Pistons cling to the No. 8 spot in the East, Portland's latest slide has it among a group of teams outside the top eight in the West chasing the Denver Nuggets. The Trail Blazers are playing the finale of three straight road games out of the break on Tuesday and won at Orlando on Thursday before struggling to keep pace with one of the better teams in the East during a 112-106 loss at Toronto, during which they allowed the Raptors to shoot 53.8 percent from the floor. Detroit suffered its own letdown on Sunday with a 104-98 home loss to Boston, with the Celtics converting a five-point play in the final minute to put the game away when Jaylen Brown was fouled during a 3-pointer and the Pistons let the rebound slip away on the free throw miss. "To not get the rebound, that was the crushing one," Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters. "That was the play that basically finished the game. It wasn't over, but if you're going to take one play in the game ... I mean, that crushed us."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN Detroit
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (24-34): Star point guard Damian Lillard is doing his best to drag Portland to the playoffs and is averaging 30.5 points on 22-of-43 shooting since the break after slumping into All-Star week by going 9-of-40 in the two games prior to the week off. Lillard added eight assists and six rebounds to his 28 points on Sunday but backcourt mate CJ McCollum went 6-of-19 from the field - the fifth straight game in which he failed to hit at least half of his shots. "I think overall, just got to continue to stick with it, try to limit the turnovers that lead to easy baskets and try to take advantage of transition, take advantage of missed shots, push the tempo and not have to call sets every play," McCollum told reporters. "When you're not getting stops and you have to calls sets every play, it makes the game a lot more difficult."
ABOUT THE PISTONS (28-31): Detroit was reportedly fielding offers for center Andre Drummond prior to the trade deadline, and the 23-year-old's flaws were on display Sunday as he went 1-of-11 from the free throw line. The Pistons are 27th in the league in free-throw percentage at 73.3 percent and could not get anyone to score consistently from the line on Sunday. "The thing is, obviously Andre was 1-for-11, but we were (15)-for-24 with the other guys," Van Gundy told reporters. "The other guys shot 62 percent, at key times in the game they were up there missing free throws."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers SF Maurice Harkless went 7-of-9 from the field on Sunday and is 7-of-9 from 3-point range over the last four contests.
2. Pistons PF Marcus Morris is 14-of-43 from the floor in his last three games.
3. Detroit pulled out a 125-124 double-overtime win at Portland on Jan. 8 behind 28 points and 14 rebounds from Drummond.