The Portland Trail Blazers are back home tonight after a long five-game road trip. They’ll take on the Brooklyn Nets for the second time in eight days, with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 PM Pacific at Moda Center.
The Blazers beat the Nets 114-95 last Monday in Brooklyn in a game that didn’t actually feel as close as the final score indicates. The Blazers never trailed and led by as many as 31 points in the decisive victory.
Let’s take a closer look at tonight’s rematch.
The Blazers won three of their five games on the road and rose from 10th place to 9th place in the Western Conference standings. They sit one-half game behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the eighth seed.
This week presents the Blazers with a great opportunity to gain even more ground. Starting with the struggling Nets tonight, they play four consecutive home games against teams at the bottom of the league standings.
The Nets have lost seven in a row and 17 of their last 19 games after a 126-122 loss in Sacramento yesterday afternoon. They own the league’s third-worst record and are positioning themselves for a high draft pick this summer.
Portland Trail Blazers (35-37) vs. Brooklyn Nets (17-54) – Mon. March 23rd – 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
How to listen: Rip City Radio 620AM
Trail Blazers Injuries: Jerami Grant, Vit Krejci, Damian Lillard, Shaedon Sharpe, Robert Williams III (out).
Nets Injuries: Noah Clowney, Egor Demin, Terrance Mann, Michael Porter Jr., Drake Powell, Day’Ron Sharpe, Danny Wolf (out).
From the Jump: When these two teams met in Brooklyn a week ago, the Blazers scored the game’s first ten points and led by 20 points at one point late in the first quarter. The Nets’ had a few short runs, but their deficit never even got back to single digits.
If the Blazers can get off to another strong start, the Nets’ lack of offensive firepower makes it hard for them to keep up or stage a comeback.
The Nets have the league’s worst offensive rating and average a league-low 106.4 points per game. That number has fallen off a cliff with Michael Porter Jr. out of the lineup. The former Denver Nugget has played well, averaging 24.2 points per game in his first season in Brooklyn.
Porter Jr. is likely done for the season, though, and has missed the team’s last six games. The Nets are scoring just 99.2 points per game, nearly nine points fewer than the second-worst offense, during that stretch. They have failed to reach the 100-point threshold in five of those six contests.
Sustainability: If you watched only the first half of the Blazers’ last four games, you’d think they were an offensive juggernaut.
They are averaging 70.3 points per game in the first half over that stretch, by far the best number in the NBA. Unfortunately for the Blazers, second half scoring has been a different story. During those same four games, the Blazers are managing just 45 points per game after halftime, good for last in the league.
Can the Blazers execute on the offensive end for a full 48 minutes against a young and inexperienced Nets team?
Small Ball Opportunities: Robert Williams III will presumably be unavailable to play on the second night of a back-to-back, opening up minutes for some smaller lineups. The Nets are one of the weaker rebounding teams in the league, so the Blazers should be able to play long stretches without a traditional center while Donovan Clingan rests.
Last week against the Nets, Williams III sat and Kris Murray stepped up to score 14 points on 6-7 shooting, including 2-2 from behind the three-point line in 25 minutes of action.
It was Murray’s second-highest scoring output of the season. Will he be able to take advantage of increased opportunity again? Or will another Blazer have a big impact off the bench?
March Madness has arrived and prior to the tournament, Brian Lewis of the New York Post wrote about the potential prizes awaiting the Nets if the ping pong balls bounce their way:
With March Madness starting, Nets fans are going to be watching a lot of basketball on split screen.
One eye on the Nets, and the other on the NCAA Tournament.
One on their team tanking for lottery odds, the other on the potential franchise-changer(s) they hope all this losing buys them.
Nets fans will be paying special attention to the three stars at the top: Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa.
Unfortunately for the Nets, even that didn’t work out. Peterson and Dybantsa’s teams have already been eliminated from the tournament.
