Trail Blazers at Timberwolves
The Portland Trail Blazers are enjoying a season-best six-game winning streak at exactly the right time as they inch closer to clinching the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference. The Trail Blazers will try to make it seven straight when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday in the makeup of a March 6 game that was postponed due to condensation on the floor.
Portland reached .500 with Saturday's 130-117 win over the Phoenix Suns and moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets in the race for the eighth spot entering play on Sunday. "We feel like we’re the team right now that we should have been all along, the way we’re playing," Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard told reporters. "But all that matters is getting a playoff spot. I guess it’s good to be .500 but nobody comes into the season saying, 'Let’s play .500 basketball.' We wish we were in a better position but it’s good to be in this position because it means that we’re in the playoffs. We’re fortunate, we’re thankful but we’ve got to continue to work." The Timberwolves fell off the pace in the battle for a playoff position last month and squandered a chance at a three-game winning streak on Saturday by allowing the struggling Sacramento Kings to shoot 56.4 percent from the floor in a 123-117 setback. The loss officially eliminated Minnesota from playoff contention.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (38-38): Lillard averaged 29.1 points in leading Portland to a 13-3 record in March and poured in 31 against Phoenix on the first day of April to bring the team to .500 for the first time since Dec. 8. Lillard's contributions became even more important over the weekend, when the team learned that emerging center Jusuf Nurkic suffered a fractured fibula in his right leg and will miss the rest of the regular season. Nurkic is averaging 15.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 20 games since coming over in a trade from the Denver Nuggets and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (30-45): Minnesota may be out of the race but is not done trying to get wins, and the young players on the roster are staying invested. Second-year center Karl-Anthony Towns collected 26 points and 11 rebounds on Saturday and is averaging 31.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in the last three contests but was not happy about the team's effort against the Kings. "We can't ever be outworked," Towns told reporters. "I felt like we were outworked in the second half. We put them at a big deficit, we should have put the game away. We can't have games like that."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Timberwolves PG Ricky Rubio went 1-of-10 from the field on Saturday but still logged his third straight double-double with 11 points and 13 assists.
2. Trail Blazers PF Noah Vonleh recorded his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds on Saturday.
3. Portland took six of the last seven in the series, including a 95-89 win in Minnesota on Jan. 1.