Blazers put postseason hopes on the line vs. Raptors

The Portland Trail Blazers will try to keep their faint hopes of a play-in spot alive when they visit the already-eliminated Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.

The Trail Blazers come off a 127-113 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, a result that left them 3 1/2 games away from a play-in berth entering Wednesday.

They had a big effort from Deni Avdija, who provided 32 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double. That more than compensated for the seven turnovers he committed.

He had help from Shaedon Sharpe, who had 33 points and 10 rebounds as Portland.

The Raptors, meanwhile, were officially eliminated from a chance at a play-in berth with a 137-118 road loss to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.

The Trail Blazers (33-43) snapped a four-game skid with the victory at Atlanta, while the Raptors (28-48) had their four-game winning streak stopped in Chicago.

The way the Trail Blazers played pleased coach Chauncey Billups and if they maintain that it could be a problem for the Raptors.

“I love how we played the entire night,” Billups said. “We talked about how important it was to get off to a good start.”

The Trail Blazers kept it close in the first quarter when they were outscored 27-26 and led 57-54 at halftime.

“I thought we had a pretty good first half, but we talked about taking care of the ball,” Billups said. “Got to take care of the ball. They were scoring a ton in transition on us.”

That will be important against the Raptors, who use the fastbreak effectively.

Portland held Atlanta to 7-for-32 (21.9 percent) on 3-point attempts, which also could be important in facing the Raptors, who shot 20-for-45 (44.4 percent) from 3-point range in Chicago.

“We did a really good job,” Billups said. “I thought our pressure was good.”

Portland had a 54-45 edge in rebounding, including a 19-12 advantage on the offensive boards.

“I wanted us to stay locked in on our offensive rebounding,” Billups said. “I thought we could have a big night against them, and we did.”

The Raptors matched a team record for most 3-pointers in a quarter when they hit eight from distance in the first quarter against the Bulls.

The problem for the Raptors was that their defense, recently a source of pride for the team, let them down.

Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic felt that was the key to the game.

“In the first quarter when we allowed them to score 39 points, they caught some fire there, shooting the ball, running in transition,” Rajakovic said. “I don’t think that we did a good job the whole night defensively. I thought offensively we did a pretty solid job.”

The Raptors had 17 points apiece from Ja’Kobe Walter and Immanuel Quickley, who also had nine assists.

Toronto will try to return to its aggressive defensive approach against the Trail Blazers. Chicago was able to shoot 56.8 percent (50-for-88) on Tuesday while holding a 49-35 advantage in rebounding and a 10-7 edge in steals.

It was a departure from the defense the Raptors have tried to develop.

“We’re trying to be disruptive,” Rajakovic said. “We’re trying to be very active. We’re trying to make our opponents play on their heels. We always want to be in attack mode.”

–Field Level Media