Clippers at Trail Blazers
The Portland trail Blazers stumbled hard at the end of a six-game road trip and suffered a pair of blow-out losses against top competitors in each conference. The Trail Blazers will try to hit the reset switch and turn things around at home when they host the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.
Portland was crushed 143-100 at the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday and was barely closer on Friday, falling 125-97 at the Golden State Warriors. "A championship team, you've got to know what can happen. It's something that we've got to look at and see why is this happening?" Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard told reporters. "Why are we losing these games by such a wide margin? But then also understand that you can lose by two, a heartbreaker or lose by 30, a loss is a loss. But after the trip we've just got to go back and correct things, get back to our foundation and get back to the things that we've done to make us the team that we started of the season as." The Clippers are rolling with wins in six of the last seven games and knocked off the Memphis Grizzlies 112-107 in overtime on Friday in a brief stop at home following a three-game trip. Los Angeles, which fell at Portland 116-105 on Nov. 8, will play eight of its next 11 games on the road.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles), NBCS Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (12-6): Los Angeles is sitting among a group of teams atop the Western Conference because of a well-rounded roster that lacks superstars but celebrates role players like power forward Montrezl Harrell. The 24-year-old Louisville product never averaged more than 11 points in three previous seasons but is posting 15.9 points on 65.4 percent shooting after going for 22 points and 11 rebounds on Friday - his third straight game with 20 or more points. "He's the most improved player in the league," Clippers guard Lou Williams told reporters of Harrell. "He has my vote early on if he can keep up that pace, but he's been playing at a high clip. We're going to need him to continue that way and he's been just playing great."
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (12-7): Portland allowed the Bucks to shoot 52.8 percent from the floor in Wednesday's loss and watched Golden State go off at 56.5 percent in Friday's setback. "This is probably the most disappointing game of the trip because they had two guys out with injuries and we had a day of rest," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters, referring to Warriors All-Stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. "This was probably the one that we really needed to get." Lillard needed 24 field-goal attempts to reach 23 points on Friday and shot 37.5 percent from the floor on the six-game trip.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers SG CJ McCollum is 13-of-26 from 3-point range over the last four games.
2. Los Angeles SF Danilo Gallinari scored 20 points on Friday after going for three points on 0-of-8 shooting Tuesday.
3. Portland took the last four meetings in the series.