Portland Trail Blazers vs Detroit Pistons: Lineups, preview & prediction 2/5/18


(Photo credit: Andrew McFarlane)

The Trail Blazers (29-24) have little time to feel sorry for themselves after a 97-96 loss at Boston on Sunday when Al Horford hit a buzzer-beater for the Celtics. 

C. J. McCollum and Damian Lillard combined for 43 points, and Maurice Harkless added 19 points off the bench while hitting all five of his 3-point shots, but Portland squandered a 16-point halftime lead as they were held under 100 points for the first time since a 104-89 loss at Atlanta on December 30.

Portland have lost six of their last eight games, giving up an average of 110.0 points and 17.3 second-chance points per game over the last four.

Detroit (25-26) improved to 2-0 with Blake Griffin in the lineup after beating Miami 111-107 on Saturday night. Griffin had 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, but it was Andre Drummond who delivered down the stretch and totaled 23 points and 20 rebounds for his sixth 20-20 game of the season.

Backups Dwight Buycks and Luke Kennard missed Saturday's game due to the flu and are day-to-day. Their absences forced coach Stan Van Gundy to use Langston Galloway as backup point guard and add Henry Ellenson into the frontcourt rotation, and while Galloway finished with 13 points and four points, Ellenson struggled in his eight minutes and missed all three of his shots.

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