Hornets at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers could not find their way on the road against a trio of Eastern Conference playoff contenders and limp home losers of three straight. The Trail Blazers will try to snap the slide when they open a stretch with three of four at home by hosting another East foe in the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
Portland was riding high with wins in seven of eight before hitting the road and falling at Toronto, Boston and Detroit during a stretch of three road games in four days. "We've gotta defend better, take advantage of our home crowd, get out and run, get easy shots," shooting guard CJ McCollum told reporters after a 111-91 loss to the Pistons on Monday. "I think the tide will turn back once we get home." The Trail Blazers are winners of eight in a row in their own arena and are taking on a Hornets squad looking to bounce back after watching a three-game winning streak come to an end with a 121-104 setback in Denver on Monday. "For our team, we're good enough offensively -- we're playing better and better," Charlotte coach Steve Clifford told reporters. "If we're not going to defend, we don't have enough offense to be a great team. When we get to where we get everyone to commit defensively ... then we'll win these games."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FS Southeast (Charlotte), NBCS Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE HORNETS (23-30): Charlotte allowed the Nuggets to shoot 56.8 percent from the floor and drain 18 3-pointers on Monday and it sits in the bottom third of the league in 3-point defense while allowing teams to go off at 37 percent. The Hornets do fine work on the perimeter offensively, and second-year shooting guard Treveon Graham is emerging as a scoring option while earning extra playing time over the last four games. Graham scored in double figures in three of the last four contests -- matching his total of double-digit scoring outbursts from his first 36 games -- and followed up a season-high 15 points on Sunday by knocking down 3-of-4 3-pointers en route to 11 points off the bench in Denver.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (29-25): Portland scored at least 100 points in 17 straight games before missing the mark against Boston and Detroit to close out the trip. McCollum, who scored 50 points on 18-of-25 shooting in the last home game on Jan. 31, slumped to 14 points on 6-of-15 in Monday's setback while All-Star point guard Damian Lillard went 6-of-21 from 3-point range on the trip. The return home should at least provide a boost to McCollum, who averages 23 points on 46.3 percent shooting in the Moda Center versus 20.7 on 44.6 percent on the road.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers PF Al-Farouq Aminu is averaging 9.7 rebounds over the last six games, raising his season mark to 7.2.
2. Hornets PF Marvin Williams (ankle) sat out the last four games but could return Thursday.
3. McCollum scored 25 points in a 93-91 win at Charlotte on Dec. 16.