Cavs in Portland Wednesday Night

Location:

Moda Center at the Rose Quarter, Portland, Oregon

Probable Starters:

Portland:

• Damian Lillard
• CJ McCollum
• Jake Layman
• Al-Farouq Aminu
• Jusuf Nurkic

Cleveland:

• Collin Sexton
• Alec Burks
• Rodney Hood
• Cedi Osman
• Tristan Thompson

Portland- The Cleveland Cavaliers are (1-2) after three games of the six-game Western Conference road trip. Game number four comes against a team that is right in the thick of the playoff picture out West, the Portland Trail Blazers.

Cleveland was able to end their 12-game losing skid Sunday night in Los Angeles 101-95. The Cavaliers had all five starters score in double-figures, with Cedi Osman leading the way with 20 points and eight rebounds. It was the second highest scoring (87 points) output for the Cavs offense this season(93 on 11/23 in Phi).

Portland is (5-3) in January, currently fifth in the very tight West playoff race. Two of those losses have come in their last two games, including a 115-107 loss to Sacramento on Monday.

The Kings did an excellent job of exploiting Portland in transition, as a number of costly turnovers proved to be the difference. Cleveland will have their hands full as they try and contain the talented back-court of Lillard and McCollum. The duo is averaging a combined 46 points a game and will provide a difficult test for rookie Collin Sexton.

In Sunday’s win against the Lakers, Sexton had a memorable moment late in the game when he scored on a key layup. Sexton finished the game with 17-points as he and Osman helped the Cavaliers end their losing streak.

Collin Sexton shake and bake! ??#BeTheFight @NBATV pic.twitter.com/lCSyrH3Qmp

— NBA (@NBA) January 14, 2019

While getting the win was important Sunday, it was also important Osman and Sexton played well. Those two were able to set the tone against LA, something they’ll need to do again Tonight.

Tristan Thompson hopes the young guys come ready to play a tough four quarters, “We’re gonna need the guys to come out be aggressive tonight. It’s gonna be a tough crowd, their crowd is definitely their sixth man.”