The Portland Trail Blazers don’t look like a No. 8 seed. Portland has been one of the better teams in Orlando since the season restarted. They are 4-2 in the bubble headed into Tuesday night’s game with the Dallas Mavericks, and they are currently one of four teams competing for the Western Conference’s play-in game along with Memphis, San Antonio, and Dallas. Damian Lillard and the Blazers currently control their own destiny, and a win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, August 13, at 9 p.m. ET should be enough to get them into the postseason. This game will be the third tilt in a rare tripleheader on TNT, and the Blazers will know what they need to do since the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Suns all play before them.
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Head-To-Head Results to Date
Lillard was unstoppable when the Blazers took on the Nets earlier this season. In their lone meeting, Dame exploded for a career-high 60 points for Portland. He was feeling it from all over the court, going 19-33 from the floor, 7-16 from beyond the arc, and 15-15 from the line, but it wasn’t enough for the Blazers to get the win. While Lillard went off, the rest of the team shot under 33 percent from the floor in a 119-115 defeat.
Injury Report
Brooklyn has been short-handed since the season resumed. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving decided not to risk further injury by heading to Orlando, joining Nicolas Claxton, Wilson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Taurean Prince on the sidelines. Jamal Crawford, Jarrett Allen, Joe Harris, and Caris LeVert all sat out of Tuesday’s game with Orlando due to leg injuries, while Chris Chiozza left the game with an injury and is not expected to play on Thursday either.
Portland was the most banged up team early in the season. Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins missed virtually all the season, and Rodney Hood was injured 21 games into the campaign. The long break gave Nurkic and Collins the time to get healthy, and there is hope that Hood could be available if the Blazers make a deep run in the playoffs. There are no other injuries to report after Trevor Ariza and Caleb Swanigan opted out of returning to the league.
Game Preview
Lillard and C.J. McCollum give Portland one of the best backcourts in the league. The Blazers rode that duo to the Western Conference Finals last year, and they have been great this season, averaging over 50 PPG between them. Lillard is one of the best at creating his own shot, and he is knocking down 39.3 percent of his threes on the year. McCollum is no slouch either in that regard, hitting 38.5 percent of his triples to make this team very formidable.
It’s a wonder the Nets are 5-2 in the bubble considering the amount of talent they lost. LeVert has done yeoman’s work though, and unsung heroes like Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Jeremiah Martin, and Donta Hall have all stepped up. Still, you have to wonder how many of the currently injured players will see the floor in the season finale given Brooklyn’s woes on that front.
X-Factor
The return of Nurkic and Collins has turned Portland into a real threat in the Western Conference. The Blazers had no frontcourt help in their absence, but now some are calling on them to pull off the rare No. 8 vs. No. 1 upset against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. Of course, the Blazers have to get there first, but they are the favorites to make the playoffs of the four teams currently gunning for the final playoff spot in the west.
Prediction
This game means everything to Portland and nothing to Brooklyn. Given the stakes, the Blazers have to be the play whatever the number.
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