The Ls just keep on coming

The Blazers enter having lost five of its last six games. On Wednesday, they scored their lowest output of the season and were defeated by the undermanned Sacramento Kings, 107-99. It’s worth mentioning that the Kings were missing their franchise cornerstone, De’Aaron Fox.

The continuous struggle is now a cause for concern for Rip City, as they still couldn’t get the job done despite CJ McCollum breaking out of his slump. His 24 points on 11-for-21 shooting was his best game in two weeks.

Among the holes in the current Blazers is its thin depth on the small forward position, which was evident in the recent loss to the LA Clippers. Kent Bazemore, Mario Hezonja, and Anthony Tolliver, three of the regular rotation guys in the position, could not stop Kawhi Leonard and allowed the Clippers star to drop 18 points in the fourth quarter.

The positional problem could again be exploited for this game, as Pascal Siakam is a long-armed small forward that is bound to run circles around those guys. Damian Lillard’s explosive scoring wouldn’t be enough to counter it.

Out to take frustration

The Raptors will be coming off a 98-88 loss to the LA Clippers. It was a frustrating defeat as they led after the first and third quarters thanks to Kawhi Leonard shooting a season-worst 2-for-11 from the floor. It was a winnable game, but they couldn’t buy a bucket in the fourth – possibly because they ran out of gas in the second night of a back-to-back.

With that, expect the defending champions to take out their frustrations on the Blazers. We should see an aggressive Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, who combined to shoot a horrid 12-for-37 in the Clippers loss. Siakam is averaging All-Star-worthy numbers (26.3 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 3.9 APG), and VanVleet is pretty solid himself (15.8 PPG, 7.7 APG, 1.6 SPG).

On defense, the Raptors have been doing a good job all season. They rank first in opponent field goal percentage (40.6%) and allow the third-fewest rebounds per game (39.4)

Possibly adding to the Blazers’ headache in containing the three position are Chris Boucher and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Both are hard-nosed forwards that can be expected to be active every second they are on the floor. In the Clippers game, they combined for 22 points, 15 rebounds, four steals, and three blocks off the bench.

PREDICTION:

The Raptors win courtesy of a big performance from Siakam, but look for Lillard to also score in bunches.