Trail Blazers at Nuggets
The Portland Trail Blazers could make a late run for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference by sweeping a home-and-home set with the Denver Nuggets. The first of the two contests is Friday in Denver and the Nuggets currently lead the Houston Rockets by 1 1/2 games and the Trail Blazers by two.
Denver smothered the San Antonio Spurs 113-85 on Wednesday to strengthen its positioning and it also trails the first-place Golden State Warriors by 1 1/2 games. The Nuggets are a stellar 32-7 at home and the trouncing of the Spurs halted a stretch in which they lost four of their previous six games overall. Portland reached the 50-win mark with a 116-89 rout of the visiting Memphis Grizzlies to move closer to wrapping up homecourt advantage for the first round. "I told the team 50 wins has always been a benchmark in this league," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "If you're a 50-win team, I think that speaks a lot about what you've done in the regular season and the success you've had in the regular season. I think we all should be very proud of what we've done so far this year. We've got work ahead of us, but you need to celebrate moments like this."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, NBCS Northwest (Portland), Altitude (Denver)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (50-28): Swingman Evan Turner scored 13 points and recorded season bests of 12 rebounds and 11 assists against the Grizzlies to join Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler (1989-90) as the only Portland players to record triple-doubles in consecutive contests. Turner has stepped up his contributions with shooting guard CJ McCollum (knee) sidelined while Enes Kanter (21 points, 15 rebounds against Memphis) and Zach Collins (career-best 18 points) are softening the blow of losing center Jusuf Nurkic (broken leg). "He's tough down there," Stotts said of Kanter. "He goes after rebounds, finishes around the basket - granted Memphis was a little undersized and he was able to take advantage of that with his rebounding and finishing around the basket."
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (52-26): Denver had been in a bit of funk but was back on its game against San Antonio as crisp ball movement helped the Nuggets shoot 54 percent from the field, including making 12 3-point attempts. "My favorite stat is 41 assists. You make 47 shots with 41 assists, that's what we stressed," Denver coach Michael Malone told reporters. "Everyone was worried about our shooting struggles, but as long as we're generating good shots and playing for each other, that's all we care about." Center Nikola Jokic was a superb 9-of-10 from the field while narrowly missing a triple-double as he had 20 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Nuggets are 2-0 against the Trail Blazers this season and have won the past five meetings.
2. Portland has recorded 14 50-win campaigns, the last three coming under Stotts.
3. Denver is 10-2 against fellow Northwest Division clubs and closes the season with four games against its rivals -- the two against Portland followed by single games against the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves.