Trail Blazers at Hawks
The Portland Trail Blazers bounced back from a disappointing loss with an impressive win at San Antonio and need to string together some consistent winning performances if they hope to track down the Denver Nuggets for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference. The Trail Blazers will try to make it back-to-back triumphs when they continue a five-game road trip by visiting the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.
Portland won the opener of the trip at Phoenix on Sunday but suffered through one of its worst performances in a 100-77 setback at New Orleans on Tuesday before grinding out the win over the Spurs the next night. "Well, that had to be to be probably our best win of the year," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "To beat a team like San Antonio on the road, and not only that, but how we won, I thought it was one of our better games as far as staying focused throughout the game. Withstanding some of their runs, the crowd, a lot of good performances." Portland will need a similar level of focus to get through a tough back-to-back closing the trip, with a visit to Miami slated for Sunday after it gets done with an Atlanta squad fighting for positioning in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks are sitting in the No. 5 spot but are close enough to the fourth-place Raptors to consider homecourt advantage in the first round if they can pull out of their current rut.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN Southeast (Atlanta)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (30-37): Portland sits in ninth place in the West, 2 1/2 games behind the Nuggets - two in the loss column - with 15 games left on the schedule. Star point guard Damian Lillard is doing his best to drag his team up the standings and is averaging 34.3 points in the last four games, including 36 on 12-of-22 shooting in Wednesday's triumph. Shooting guard CJ McCollum, who averages 23.3 points, scored only eight on 4-of-12 shooting in Tuesday's loss but found his form again on Wednesday with 26 points for his sixth 20-plus performance in the last seven contests.
ABOUT THE HAWKS (37-31): Atlanta did not have as much luck at San Antonio with a 107-99 loss on Monday and followed it up with a 103-91 home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday. The Hawks are looking for more from All-Star power forward Paul Millsap, who battled foul trouble at San Antonio and slumped to 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting with more turnovers (four) than rebounds (three) in Thursday's setback. Point guard Dennis Schroder is in his own slump from long range and is 4-of-22 from beyond the arc over the last five contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hawks rookie SF Taurean Prince is averaging 12.7 points on 13-of-20 shooting in the last three games.
2. Trail Blazers SF Evan Turner, who has been out since suffering a broken hand on Feb. 7, will practice on Friday and could return this weekend.
3. Atlanta earned a 109-104 win in the first meeting this season at Portland on Feb. 13.