Grizzlies at Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers suffered through their worst offensive night at the Memphis Grizzlies last week before lighting up the scoreboard in back-to-back wins over the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers. The Trail Blazers will try to keep the points coming and gain some revenge when they host the Grizzlies on Wednesday.
Portland shot 36.8 percent from the floor in a 92-83 loss at Memphis last Wednesday but pushed that number to 51.1 percent in a home win over the Raptors before riding the hot hands of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum to 54.7 percent in a 131-127 triumph at the Clippers on Monday. "We’re still confident, but we just have to stay locked in," Trail Blazers forward Maurice Harkless told reporters. "There's been times where we've had leads like that and we gave it up. I think the past two games, we've been able to show a bit of our growth, and we were able to keep it together and close out the game." The Grizzlies are losers of three straight and five of the last six and failed to score more than 99 points in any of those six contests. Memphis began a four-game road trip at defending-champion Golden State on Monday and dropped a 110-93 decision while going 7-of-25 from 3-point range.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FS South (Memphis), NBCS Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (16-14): The bright spot for Memphis' offense came off the bench on Monday from small forward Omri Casspi, who went out and scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting against his former team. Casspi's breakout came after a three-game stretch in which he totaled four points on 2-of-5 shooting. The Grizzlies did not get as much on Monday from the power forward spot, from where Jaren Jackson Jr. and JaMychal Green combined for six points on 2-of-12 shooting.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (17-13): Lillard scored 32 of his 39 points in the second half on Monday and finished 11-of-20 from the floor, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range. "(Lillard) had it going," Portland coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "I thought our guys did a really good job of screening and giving him some space to get some good looks at the threes. I'm not sure what he had in the third quarter, but when you give him time and space, I like our chances." McCollum, who was the lone offensive bright spot with 40 points at Memphis last week, added 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting in Monday's triumph.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers C Jusuf Nurkic went 8-of-12 from the floor on Monday after combining to go 5-of-30 in the previous two contests.
2. Grizzlies PG Mike Conley (hamstring) sat out Monday and is day-to-day.
3. The home team took the last three in the series, with Portland grabbing a 113-98 victory on its own floor April 1.