Portland Trail Blazers vs. Philadelphia 76ers Preview

The Portland Trail Blazers have a chance of reaching three wins in a row for the second time this season. After defeating the Utah Jazz in a close one on Thursday, the Blazers kept the Dallas Mavericks at bay on Saturday, winning 126-122.

After starting the season 3-14, the Philadelphia 76ers are showing signs that they have righted the ship. Winners of 7 or the last 9 including a 118-114 at Boston, the 76ers are looking to get back into contention with a solid road trip. After beating the aforementioned Celtics on Wednesday, Philadelphia defeated the Utah Jazz 114-111 in Salt Lake City on Saturday. They will certainly be expecting a win in Portland before moving on to Sacramento, San Francisco and bizarrely Brooklyn before returning home.

Portland Trail Blazers (11-20) at Philadelphia 76ers (12-17) – Mon. Dec. 30 – 7:00pm Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Trail Blazers injuries: Matisse Thybulle (out), Dalano Banton, Toumani Camara, Jerami Grant, Robert Williams III (questionable)

76ers injuries: Jared McCain, KJ Martin, Eric Gordon (out), Andre Drummond (questionable)

SB Nation Affiliate: Liberty Ballers

Blazer’s Edge Reader Questions

John Kaiser:

Thybulle?? 8 weeks for a ankle sprain???

He’s been out for more like 10 weeks, but the original injury was a knee injury. It was in late November that he suffered the ankle sprain while he was gearing up to hopefully return from the knee. At the time the Blazers expected 3-6 weeks recovery for the ankle injury. I don’t have any update on the timeline, but I’ll note that we are still in the range for expected recovery of the ankle. I can imagine that the Blazers might be a little more conservative in bringing him back than they originally said due to there having been two injuries, as well as the current win-loss record.

Blazerspenwheel:

Assuming he never wins a championship, where would you place Embiid in the “Best centers to never win a ring” list?

He’s never even been to the conference finals.

He’s top three for me, along with Patrick Ewing and Paul Mokeski. Well, ok, maybe top two. I honestly can’t think of another true contender other than Ewing. Am I missing anyone? I think I’d rate Joel just below Ewing.

pokermonk:

What single insight can be taken away from the last 2 good games and implemented vs the Sixers (telling CB that this this is a special night game that starts at 10pm not allowed)?

The Blazers are a respectable team when they shoot well. The Blazers are shooting 44.3% from the field and 33.5% from three this season. These numbers put them 27th and 26th respectively in the NBA. Against Utah they shot 50.6% from the field and 39.5% from deep, and against Dallas it was 50% and 42.3%. If they shot their season averages they probably lose both games. These margins may not seem like much, but for some perspective consider that the best shooting team in the NBA is Cleveland, and they average 50.6% from the field and 40.9% from beyond the arc, pretty close to what Portland has shot these last two games.

Of course, you can’t just snap your fingers and shoot well from here on out. Highlighting shooting implies that perhaps the recent success isn’t sustainable regardless of who is in charge, and unfortunately I largely believe that. Scoot and Deni both looked much improved in the last two games though, so if there is something Bjorkgren did or said to help them succeed… then Billups should do that too. Otherwise we should just enjoy the last two games for the promise it showed in Scoot and Deni, but not worry too much if there is a little regression in the short term.

What to Watch For

The Blazers playing with energy and confidence. During the fourth quarter against Utah and pretty much the whole game against Dallas, the Blazers were closer to the team fans want to see than has often been the case the last few seasons. Of course winning is nice, but beyond that we saw good effort on defense, individuals taking the ball and trying to force the issue, and confident offensive play. It wasn’t always successful or pretty, but if the Blazers were going to lose the other team needed to beat them. That’s what we want to see against the 76ers. Make Philadelphia play better than you on both sides of the court.

What Others Are Saying

The 76ers need to make the most of the their West Coast swing writes Greg Frank of Liberty Ballers.

But enough with the geography lesson and on to the basketball. Winners of eight of 11, the Sixers have to be feeling good about themselves for the first time all season. However, they’re still 11-17 and certainly have not climbed all the way out of the early-season hole they dug for themselves. These upcoming games look to be ripe opportunities for the team to continue its march to .500. Utah and Portland have combined for just 17 wins in the season’s first two months while Sacramento is under .500 as well and just fired head coach Mike Brown.

Nicolas Kyle Pring of The Sixer Sense likes the wins but is noting a concerning trend.

In the last two games, all five starters have played north of 30 minutes with the bench getting little run. While this can simply be tossed up as Nurse being, well, Nurse, the lack of leeway for rest he has given to his preferred starting unit is far from sustainable.

Sure, the wins look sterling at the moment after two months of bleak basketball, but overtaxing your best players in December should not be the intentional design. This team is made up of injury-prone parts, and the coaching staff cannot play tango with the injury bug by not employing more preventive measures on the court here and there.

To Blaze and Douglas Fur: don’t pick up any hitchhikers.