Trail Blazers at Timberwolves
The Portland Trail Blazers are fighting for the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference and lost some ground with a poor performance on Saturday. The Trail Blazers will try to bounce back and finish a four-game road trip strong when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.
Portland dropped into fourth place in the West - a half-game behind third-place Houston - with a 99-90 loss at Detroit on Saturday in which it shot 37.3 percent from the floor while watching a six-game winning streak come to an end. "That was a rough game," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "The first quarter was brutal, neither team really had it going. We had a lot of opportunities, I felt, in the first quarter to have a bigger lead than we did that we weren't able to take advantage of. After that, we just struggled offensively, didn't have a lot of rhythm." The Timberwolves are ticketed for the lottery but are still pushing and earned a 131-130 overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday before falling short against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday. Minnesota dropped the 118-109 decision but did manage to hold former teammate Jimmy Butler to 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting in the setback.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCS Northwest (Portland), FS North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (48-28): Saturday's setback was the team's first since losing center Jusuf Nurkic to a season-ending broken leg, but Portland still managed to outrebound Detroit 68-52. Enes Kanter made his third start in place of Nurkic and delivered 20 points and 15 rebounds in 34 minutes for his first double-double since taking over the starting spot. Shooting guard CJ McCollum, who is second on the team in scoring at an average of 21.3 points and did not make the trip, is still recovering from a knee injury suffered at San Antonio on March 16 and is uncertain to make his return over the final six games.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (34-42): Former No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins had his game picked apart early this season in the wake of criticism from Butler but is finishing strong and scored at least 20 points in his sixth straight game with 24 on Saturday. The 24-year-old swingman shot 9-of-18 from the floor on Saturday and added six rebounds, five assists and two blocks while helping out with the defensive effort against Butler. All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points on Saturday but was held to seven rebounds to end a string of nine straight double-doubles.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Timberwolves PF Taj Gibson (calf) sat out the last five games but has not been ruled out the rest of the way and is questionable for Monday.
2. Trail Blazers SF Maurice Harkless recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday.
3. The home team took each of the first three meetings, with Portland dropping a 112-96 decision at Minnesota on Nov. 16.