The Portland Trail Blazers have an opportunity to climb the standings by hosting eight of their next 10 games.
Portland looks to begin that stretch on a positive note when it hosts the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
The Trail Blazers have momentum, having won four of their past five games, beginning with an impressive 114-108 victory over the Boston Celtics.
The last three were on the road and Portland went 2-1 and put together a strong effort in Saturday’s 115-110 takedown of the San Antonio Spurs. The Trail Blazers never trailed by more than three points against the 25-win Spurs.
“Down the stretch, I think we kept our composure most of the time,” Portland interim coach Tiago Splitter said afterward. “A couple of mistakes, a couple of missed free throws again, but found a way to win the game and got it done.”
Donovan Clingan excelled with Spurs star Victor Wembanyama (knee) sidelined and recorded a career-best 24 points to go with 12 rebounds.
Clingan set the tone by scoring Portland’s first 11 points and he knocked down three 3-pointers during the run.
“Just being aggressive,” Clingan said of coming out of the gates fast. “And then once I saw two go in, I knew I had to get up a third. And then I tried a fourth, and I missed that time.”
Deni Avdija celebrated his 25th birthday by continuing his strong season with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. It was his third triple-double of the season and fifth of his career.
Toumani Camara also stood out with 20 points and eight rebounds. He knocked down five 3-pointers and is 9 of 20 from behind the arc over the past two games.
“I think I’m playing better than I was earlier,” Camara said. “This season, just kind of finding a rhythm, stop overthinking the game, just playing with more confidence. I think that’s the biggest thing for me.”
The Trail Blazers beat Utah 136-134 on Oct. 29 in Salt Lake City in this season’s first meeting between the teams.
Jrue Holiday had 27 points and eight assists for Portland, while Lauri Markkanen had 32 points and Keyonte George added 29 points and eight assists for the Jazz.
Markkanen scored 35 points on Saturday but Utah lost 123-114 to the host Golden State Warriors. George added 22 points and nine assists but also had seven turnovers.
The loss was the third straight and seventh in the past nine for the Jazz.
The game in Portland is the third of a four-game road trip for Utah.
Veteran Kevin Love collected 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes against the Warriors for his second double-digit outing on the boards in his last four appearances.
Love, 37, recently displayed his early career form with 16 points and 16 rebounds in a 128-127 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic.
Utah coach Will Hardy plans to increase Love’s minutes after the recent uptick in production.
“He’s an elite rebounder, and so those things continue to show up,” Hardy said. “And then obviously, just kind of his general savvy in his 18th year — he’s gotten a little more familiar with his teammates, and I think his spacing element gives us a different look.”
The Jazz are expected to be without big man Jusuf Nurkic (left toe) for the third straight game.
Holiday (calf) has missed the last 24 games for Portland.
