Portland Trailblazers vs. Charlotte Hornets Preview

Portland Trail Blazers(21-26) vs夏洛特Hornets(22-24)
Friday, January 29
Moda Center | 7:00 p.m. PST | Local TV/Radio: CSN; 620 AM
Portland injury report:帕特康顿（可疑 - 脚踝）|夏洛特injury report:Michael Kidd-Gilchrist（可疑 - 肩膀），Jeremy Lin（出 - 脚踝），Jeremy Lamb(Questionable - toe),Al Jefferson(Out - knee),Cody Zeller(Out - shoulder)
SBN Affiliate:At The Hive|Blazer's Edge Night 2016

This game marks the middle point of the Blazers’ seven game homestand, and they hope to keep the good times rolling. Portland has won six of their last eight games to suddenly find themselves in the No. 8 seed of the playoff race by percentage points.

Damian Lillard和CJ McCollumhave continued taking turns popping off offensively, while their athletic centers have been effective and efficient.Meyers Leonardhas been showing some signs defensively, and has been taking and making more threes in the last five games, and at a 39.3 percent clip.Mason Plumleehas made more consistent contributions, including upticks in points and assists over the last 10 games. Meanwhile,Gerald Hendersonhas extra motivation to want to drop a third straight solid performance tonight: his former squad is in town.

The Hornets’ season has been a rollercoaster ride, and not really the type that leaves you clamoring to ride it again. After they smoked the Blazers in November, Charlotte was in the middle of a stretch where they would win nine of 11 games. That was followed by five straight wins against likely playoff teams in early December—but they haven’t scored a win against an impressive opponent since. At the turn of the new year, they went on a slide that saw them lose nine of 10. They have since turned it around again, winning four of their last six, including three overtime victories. Yet their West Coast road trip has gotten off to an inauspicious start, as they suffered a 102-73 drubbing in Utah on Wednesday night. So it is hard to tell if this team is still cresting, or will suddenly jerk downwards into their next drop.

这是这种精神分裂症，让黄蜂队留在东方最后一个季后赛的希望中。当一支球队必须调整到几项重大伤害时，这并不是完全出乎意料的，包括自12月初和迈克尔·基德 - 吉尔彻里斯特自迄今为止迈克尔·基德 - 吉尔克里斯特的亚洲杰斐逊。最近，Nicolas Batumhas missed seven games since the new year, center Cody Zeller has missed the last four games, and sixth man Jeremy Lamb has missed seven of the last eight games. And now Jeremy Lin, who looks like he has finally found a home in Charlotte, seems unlikely to play after a bad-looking ankle sprain against Utah.

结果是一群角色扮演者将在一周的上周玩家和塔斯曼魔鬼样旋风上的支持中宣传角色Kemba Walker(场均20.5分,5.0 AST, 4.2犹太人的尊称)。沃克居mp in efficiency this year, and, as he once did in college, and has shown the ability to carry a team on his back. With Charlotte down 18 points a couple minutes into the fourth quarter against Orlando last week, Walker went off for 17 points in the fourth and overtime, on his way to 40 in the win. He also put up 52 against the defensive-mindedJazz。

He hasn’t been nearly as superlative this week, instead going a combined 12-for-50 in back-to-back contests against theKings和Knicks。但他今晚在波特兰的拖车可能有一点帮助。

Batman Returns, MKG Reloaded, and who's Troy F@#%ing Daniels?

The Utah game saw the return of Batum, who has struggled in the last seven contests he has appeared in—to the tune of 33.8 percent from the floor and 8.9 PPG. This stretch has dampened his overall numbers a bit; nevertheless, Batum is boasting career highs in points (14.9) and assists (5.3) along with his second-best rebounding season (6.4). He has been a good fit for Charlotte, mostly playing shooting guard and doing well with the added responsibility demanded of his familiar utility belt.

kidd-gilchrist也有可能让他的季节亮相今晚。预计季节撕裂了季节撕裂的赛季，他应该丢失，而是应该给一个需要它的团队注入运动员，D和董事会。

The recent inclusion ofTroy Danielsin the rotation is another interesting wrinkle that may be tough to gameplan for. Blazers fans may remember him as the curse word no one had ever heard of before he kept hitting big jumpshots in the ’14 Houston playoff series. Well, he’s still hitting those threes (50.8 percent), including 8 of 11 on Monday.

Veteran forwardMarvin Williamshas been a steadying presence this season, with career highs in rebounds, blocks, and three-point tries in season No. 11, and thus can't be forgotten about on the perimeter.Spencer Hawes, who was once coveted by many Blazer fans, has been starting at center of late and had a couple of nice outings sandwiched around forgettable nights. So no worries, he’s still the one you’re glad got away.

Second-year swingman PJ Hairston just scored a career-high 20 against the Knicks the other night, but is struggling to find consistency. Rhythm has similarly been elusive for rookie Frank Kominsky, who has had a handful of offensive outbursts this year, but has had nights like he did against the Kings this week (1-for-10) just as often.

Short-handedness has meant 20-plus minutes a game for human foul machine Tyler Hansborough, who averages an astonishing 6.1 personals per 36 minutes.

FYI—this is what a human foul machine looks like:

It has no soul, and it WILL foul anything in its path. Please, warn your friends and family. If it does approach you, don't run away; you have to just let it foul you until it eventually goes away.

All kidding aside, we can all rest easy in the knowledge that there are just certain jobs technology will never make obsolete, such as being a basketball goon.

类似的ly, there will always be jobs for backup point guards who can run an offense without giving the ball away and also hit free throws when needed. Brian Roberts is such a man, and looks slated for minutes with Lin out.

Regardless of who is on court, you can count on Charlotte to jack up a ton of threes in a quantity-over-quality approach (No. 3 in attempts, No. 17 in 3-point percentage), get to free throw line a good amount (No. 11) and hit when they’re there (No. 3 in percentage), and take care of the ball (Second fewest TOs). On defense, they get a bunch of steals (No. 3) and close out possessions well (Third fewest offensive rebounds allowed), but can be hurt by the three (No. 25 in makes and takes allowed, No. 20 in percentage).

What the Blazers need to do to win

比赛Walker的镜头：在Kemba Walker面前比完成更容易，所以这可能会成为一个团队的努力。Lillard的Snub来自全明星游戏的争论之一将是他的辩护，所以看看他在这个问题上都会有趣。大型人需要准备好加强，而不是犯规的沃克是一个伟大的罚球射击射手，当一个后卫在他的4英尺不到4英尺之内时，他拍摄了28.5％。

三个自己的想法:夏洛特gives up a lot of threes. Portland likes taking threes. Who needs Tinder when you can find perfectly good matches like this out there?

Look front and center:Facing off with the lumbering Hawes and Hansborough, as well as a rookie who looks like a rookie (Kaminsky), the Blazers have lots of advantages here to exploit when they have the ball. Competent boardwork is also a must.

Key matchup to win: Nicolas Batum vs.Al-Farouq Aminu/Allen Crabbe:最后一次会议，巴伐姆提醒我们，当他完全健康和专注时，他可以做些什么 - 他很少在他上个赛季为燃烧者 - 当他下降33分。但是，燃烧者很了解他，特别是他以前的沉思，艾伦克拉布。aminu已经陷入困境，迟到了，他的分钟开始滑倒，所以这对他发表了一个良好的地方。如果波特兰可以早期挫败巴图姆和/或让他成为“被动的巴拿清”，这将是一个大胜利，夏洛特在经过验证的进攻方面的挑剔选择。

Outlook

This is a game the Blazers should win, period. Beating the beatable teams at home is something that you need to do if you want to consider yourself a true playoff aspirant. With a tougher stretch of games on the horizon, now is the time to consolidate their gains.

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