Portland Trail Blazers start grueling road trip against Toronto Raptors
By Ryan Allison
Today at 4:00 p.m. PST, the Portland Trail Blazers start their five game road trip against the Toronto Raptors. With the next five games on the road, the Trail Blazers look to build on their two game winning streak and take the season series from the Raptors. Both teams ended the 2014 calendar year battling each other as the Trail Blazers defeated the Raptors at home on December 30th (102-97) in a thrilling overtime game. The Raptors have lost nine of their last 11 games but play six of their next nine at home. The game can be seen on CSNNW and heard on Rip City Radio 620 AM.
It must have felt really good for the Trail Blazers to get a decisive victory on Friday night over the Detroit Pistons. The offense was cooking all night and the Trail Blazers finished the game with a season-high 57.5 percent from the field. They also shot 52.4 percent from behind the arc, led by Lillard who connected on 5-7 from distance. Lillard topped the team with 28 points and Afflalo had his second-best game in a Trail Blazers jersey, finishing with 15 points on 5-9 shooting.
The task for the Trail Blazers will be to take their recent success on the road. Tonight is the first game of a five game road trip which includes two back-to-back sets. The Trail Blazers take on the Washington Wizards tomorrow. The Raptors and Wizards are both in the top five in the Eastern Conference but the Trail Blazers are 19-6 against Eastern Conference opponents this season.
The Raptors started the season very hot and have since stumbled. Like the Trail Blazers, they hold a comfortable lead in their division, currently 10 games ahead of the Boston Celtics. As mentioned, the Raptors have lost nine of their last 11 games but have a completely healthy lineup. Lowry is coming off a monster game against the Miami Heat on Friday where he had 19 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and seven steals. He had a big game against the Trail Blazers in the first meeting posting 25 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
DeRozan missed the first meeting due to a groin injury. He will be in the lineup tonight and will have to play well for the Raptors to win. He is averaging 18.9 points on the season but has played much better recently, averaging 21.2 points over his last 10 games. DeRozan is the type of player that is either hot or cold on a given night. It’s not uncommon that he finishes a game shooting less than 30.0 percent from the field. In Friday’s game against the Heat, he was only 3-12 from the field (25.0 percent).
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Afflalo will once again be called upon for his defensive play. He will matchup with DeRozan and will be tasked to make him have another cold night on the court. It wouldn’t hurt if Afflalo was able to provide another double-digit scoring night. As he gets used to playing with the rest of the Trail Blazers, I expect him to become more consistent. It helps that Afflalo has already faced the Raptors twice this year when he was with the Nuggets. In those games, he averaged 17.0 points on 52.0 percent shooting.
Looking at this game on paper, the marquee matchup will be in the backcourt with Lillard and Lowry. Both players are explosive and can take over a game. We already talked about Lowry’s performance against the Trail Blazers in the first meeting but it should also be mentioned that Lillard played extremely well. He played a game-high 46 minutes and finished with a game-high 26 points while adding nine assists. His shooting wasn’t great (9-24, 37.5 percent) but he set the pace of the game. His offense will be needed but his defense on Lowry is more important.
The Trail Blazers need to start this road trip with a win. They can do that if they limit Lowry’s impact, keep DeRozan cold from the field, and win the turnover battle.