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Portland Trail Blazers news roundup: Blazers blow by Suns, Lillard looks to erase playoff sweep, and Harkless dealing with injury

By Shawn P. O’Connor

Lonzo Ball #2 of the Los Angeles Lakers defends against Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter of a basketball game between the two teams at Staples Center on March 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Lonzo Ball #2 of the Los Angeles Lakers defends against Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter of a basketball game between the two teams at Staples Center on March 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. /
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Only six days until #BeatLA! Here’s another Rip City news drop.

Blazers blow by Suns, win 116-83

Portland dominated the Phoenix Suns in their fourth preseason game, improving to 2-2 this preseason. The Trail Blazers were missing five key players for a variety of reasons, with Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Evan Turner, and Gary Trent, Jr. all listed as inactive. Moe Harkless also missed last night’s game with an injury.

Jake Layman was the star of the show. Layman dominated from start to finish, as described by The Oregonian:

"Layman was sensational from beginning to end, unleashing an assortment of three-pointers, dunks and drives to the hoop against the Suns. He finished with 28 points, four rebounds and three assists, while making 10 of 14 shots, including 5 of 7 threes."

Wade Baldwin IV played hard, likely earning himself the backup point guard position with a 15 point, four rebound and five assist night. Nik Stauskas had a great night as well, tallying 10 points, seven boards and five assists in the Portland victory.

Portland returns to the Moda Center for their final preseason game, as they host the Sacramento Kings.

Lillard looks to erase painful playoff sweep

After last year’s playoff debacle, many accused the Blazers of being complacent. Nothing could be further from the truth, Damian Lillard said in a recent article by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"I don’t see how we could be complacent about anything. I think it’s a level of comfort with each other we’ve you know been teammates for a few years now we know each other pretty well so I think there is comfort. But I don’t think we’re in a position to be complacent."

Damian also mentions in the article that making the playoffs is always a tough task, but especially in the loaded Western Conference.

"I want to get back to the playoffs and have a better performance but like I said it’s a super, super tough Western Conference so we’ve got to focus on what’s in front of us each game in a regular season until we get to that position."

Moe Harkless still dealing with knee injury

Moe Harkless reinjured his knee in the pregame warmups prior to the Phoenix Suns contest. Harkless had knee surgery this offseason, and was on pace to play in the season opener against LA. Moe did not give a firm answer as to if he would play opening night, in a recent Blazers Edge article.

"I’m taking it day by day, we got a week before that and if you look at the progress from this week to last week I think we made big jumps, so I’ve just got to continue to just put my all into getting better every day and that’s still the goal, so we’ll see."

Harkless appeared in 59 games with 36 starts last season, averaging 6.5 points and 2.7 rebounds in 21.4 minutes played.

Stay tuned for more Blazers news, as #BeatLA approaches!