The Portland Trail Blazers, losers of their last five, are facing the Toronto Raptors who probably wish they were, too. Having won six of their last seven games despite having in injury report longer than a CVS receipt, the Raptors are four games ahead of the Blazers in the battle for seventh-best lottery odds, and tonight’s game may play a critical role if Portland continues losing.
Portland Trail Blazers (28-39 -3.7 Net Rating) vs. Toronto Raptors (24-43 -4.5 Net Rating)
Sun. March 16 @ 3pm 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; NBA TV elsewhere (also available on streaming via NBA TV on League Pass)
Trail Blazers injuries: Anfernee Simons, Jerami Grant (day-to-day); Robert Williams III, Deandre Ayton, Jabari Walker (out).
Raptors injuries: Jamal Shead (probable); RJ Barrett, Ochai Agbaji (questionable); Ja’Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, Ulrich Chomche (out).
SBN Affiliate:Raptors HQ
As expected, neither team are any great shakes: Toronto boasts the 25th-best offense and the 17th-best defense, while Portland is 23rd and 19th respectively. Both teams are top six on the offensive glass, and both teams are between 22nd and 24th in effective field goal percentage. With Portland missing their best scorer in Anfernee Simons and the Raptors missing... well, everybody... we will instead be treated to what should be a pretty evenly-matched contest of teams with young or fringe rotation players working their butts off to prove themselves.
If you take this game out of the context of the NBA ecosystem, it will probably be a hoot, so sit back, relax, and enjoy some mid Sunday afternoon basketball that will be over in time to start early prepping for dinner.
Last Time They Played...
...the Blazers built a 20-point lead, blew it, then built a double-digit lead in overtime for the 129-118 win.
Reader Questions
Before most games, we ask you all to make our previews better by asking us questions! Keep your eyes peeled for posts just like this to add your questions and (possibly) have them answered right here in these very previews!
From PoleAx:
Since Portland and Toronto seem to be pursuing a similar flavor of rebuild, e.g., keeping productive vets on the roster rather than selling them off for draft picks, maybe consider comparing/contrasting their rebuilds against each other... or comparing/contrasting that style of rebuild against “The Process”/OKC model.
I wanna be honest: I don’t know enough about the Raptors to feel fully qualified to answer this. But I will say that OKC’s rebuild is historically unique: They were able to extract WELL above market value for Paul George that most people wrote off at the time as “the price the Clippers had to pay to make sure Kawhi Leonard got there.” They got two picks and two swaps getting Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook. In total, OKC has 31 (thirty one) picks or swaps between now and 2030. That is absurd, and it’s a war chest that neither the Blazers (13) nor the Raptors (12) enjoy. I actually need to stop writing about this now because it makes me sick just thinking about it.
From Layman’s terms:
Are the raptors like velociraptors, or are there other raptors? They’re not bird raptors, seems like. If a raptor tried to chase down, say, a cat, do you think it could catch it? Maybe say the chase took place on a trail. Think the cat would be nimble enough to get some solid swipes in on the raptor if they did get into it?
Finally, a serious question! Yes, there are dozens of raptor dinosaurs (as well as their distant genetic spawn you mentioned in modern birds). To take one example: velociraptors could run at 25mpg. Cats can reach 30, meaning I reckon a cat could get away safely and maybe even be able to use their fuzzy murder mittens for a few bats before skittering away.
From Doganpc:
How are your preseason win total predictions going? Back in October the over/under was 22.5; I took the over thinking 30 wins were feasible by talent level and other teams better at losing than the Trail Blazers.
The Blazers are better than I thought they would be! At least up until now... there are still plenty of games left to tank if that’s the route they go (and IMO they should).
From raoulduke:
When Raptors fans start chanting “We the north” do they realize that they are south of Portland?
That pesky Mercator projection gets them every time!
About the Opponent:
Chelsea Leite of Raptors HQ brings a view from another that just MIGHT be considering tanking down the stretch of yet another season, and the frustration that may follow with snagging a win in such a circumstance:
Like sure, this is the most tank-y Raptors lineup maybe of all time, but honestly so is Philly’s. Not to mention this was essentially a MUST lose for the Raptors if they want to safely avoid the play-in tournament. I know you’re thinking “Chelsea, get to the point” and honestly I DON’T KNOW IF I HAVE ONE GUYS. Even with all of this the Raptors STILL held the lead for a majority of the game. They were up TWENTY points in the second quarter. T-W-E-N-T-Y.
Now of course, players don’t tank. If you’re a fringe 10-13th spot rotation guy or a two-way and you are given the full green light to play — you’re playing the hardest you’ve ever played in your life. This is your shot. This is your chance to get noticed. Maybe the team messed up by signing a bunch of good-hearted, hard working, underdog mentality kind of players — because they were motivated. They wanted it so bad, and you can’t even blame them. You almost (and kind of did) want them to succeed. In the end, despite a valiant comeback effort from Nick Nurse’s 76ers, the Raptors still won this game 118-105.
Blake Murphey of Sportsnet also talks about the paradox of seeing players overperform when the franchise seems to want to lose:
The Raptors now have 24 wins and are in sole possession of seventh in the lottery standings, right as we all tune in to a bit more college ball for the next few weeks. They were fifth not long ago, and there’s a real chance they’ll catch a woeful Spurs team for eighth. That all matters (really matters), and while you can argue that the Raptors could have made development and chemistry trade-offs earlier to lose a few more games, their path further down the standings is now tougher than their peers. With six players injured, Jakob Poeltl resting on a non back-to-back, and a handful of fringe players overdelivering, they’ll have to find joy in a process that’s paradoxically returned “too many” good moments. And yeah, it feels weird writing things like that. Even sportswriters have trouble holstering the competitive drive or a desire to evaluate things through a competitive lens. There is a larger league issue for a discussion another time.