76ers at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are up to ninth place in the Western Conference and are keeping the pressure on eighth-place Denver with a three-game winning streak. The Trail Blazers will try to make it four in a row when they host the fading Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday.
Portland overcame a 58-point outburst from Russell Westbrook to earn a 126-121 win at the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday by using a balanced attack that saw seven players score in double figures. "I think probably the most satisfying thing is that we got contributions from so many players, everybody that played," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "Up and down the roster, everybody that got in the game contributed in some way whether it was rebounding, passing, scoring, defending. It was a really good team win." Portland plays its next two games at home before hitting the road for five straight but finishes up the campaign with 10 of 12 in its own building. The 76ers have reached a familiar point in their season where taking a long look at some younger players is more important than going all-out for wins, and the fact that they made it this far into the season before reaching that point counts as a major improvement.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, TCN (Philadelphia), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE 76ERS (23-40): Philadelphia picked up swingman Justin Anderson from the Dallas Mavericks in the trade that sent Nerlens Noel away at the deadline and is giving the 23-year-old a chance to earn regular playing time. Anderson logged an average of 25.8 minutes in the last four games and scored 19 points in two of those outings, including Monday against Milwaukee. "I’m just trying to play as hard as I can, and show my respect through my hard play," Anderson told reporters. "I’m just trying to be a piece to the major puzzle."
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (27-35): Portland didn't have anyone able to match Westbrook's output on Tuesday but did put three players over 20 points in Allen Crabbe (23), Damian Lillard (22) and CJ McCollum (21) while knocking off a team above them in the standings. Crabbe went 5-of-7 from 3-point range in the win and is 10-of-15 from beyond the arc over the last four contests. "This was a game we needed to win," McCollum told reporters. "Obviously, each game is magnified getting closer down the stretch, and also for the tie-breaker purposes, we wanted to make sure we took care of them."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers C Jahlil Okafor (knee) sat out the last two games and is questionable for Thursday.
2. Trail Blazers C Jusuf Nurkic is averaging 17.8 points over the last four games.
3. Portland suffered a 93-92 loss at Philadelphia on Jan. 20 despite getting 30 points from Lillard.