Trail Blazers at Lakers
The Portland Trail Blazers look to wrap up the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. Portland has a two-game lead on the fifth-place Utah Jazz with two games to play so either a Trail Blazers' victory or a Jazz setback will give Portland homecourt advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
The Trail Blazers have won 12 of their past 15 games after posting a 115-108 home win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday. Star point guard Damian Lillard scored 30 points and knocked down five 3-pointers to raise his season count to 234, breaking his own franchise mark of 229 set in 2015-16. The Lakers aren't part of the postseason for the sixth straight season but they delivered a stunning 113-109 home win over the red-hot Utah Jazz on Sunday. "I'm sure when you're a team that is looking down the roster and looking who is playing for us, naturally you would let down a little bit. That's part of why this is fun," Los Angeles coach Luke Walton told reporters after the triumph over the Jazz. "It's the type of win where we needed everyone and everyone stepped up."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Northwest (Portland), Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (51-29): Shooting guard CJ McCollum (knee) returned from a 10-game absence to score nine points in 25 minutes on Sunday. "I felt like I was moving pretty well, I felt my conditioning was in pretty good shape," McCollum told reporters after the contest. "I was just trying to play the game." McCollum was just 3-of-13 shooting but also contributed six rebounds and six assists and he is expected to receive similar minutes against the Lakers.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (37-44): Shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope exploded to score 18 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter as Los Angeles won for the sixth time in the past nine games. The Lakers used just eight players against Utah and one of them was rookie forward Jemerrio Jones, who collected 16 rebounds in his first NBA start and fifth gave overall. "It was my time I guess and everything happens for a reason," Jones told reporters afterward. "I'm not scoring a lot of points so I have to do the other things. I've been rebounding but this is on the biggest stage."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Lakers are 2-1 against the Trail Blazers this season and broke a 16-game losing streak in the series with a 114-110 road win on Nov. 3.
2. Los Angeles PG Alex Caruso had 18 points and 11 assists against Utah after scoring a career-best 32 points two nights earlier against the Los Angeles Clippers.
3. Portland PF Al-Farouq Aminu scored a season-high 23 points and also had 11 rebounds against Denver for his second straight double-double.