The injury-plagued Portland Trail Blazers will aim to end their five-game road trip on a high note when they visit the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday.
Away from home since the beginning of December, Portland slumped to 1-3 on the trip with a 119-96 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
First-choice starters Jrue Holiday (calf) and Donovan Clingan (lower leg), center Robert Williams III (illness) and defensive specialist Matisse Thybulle (thumb) were all sidelined against the Grizzlies.
Point guard Scoot Henderson (hamstring) has yet to make his season debut, while nine-time All-Star Damian Lillard (torn Achilles) will not feature at all in 2025-26.
Despite the challenges, the Trail Blazers’ morale remains high.
“I think mentally we’re at a good space,” said Toumani Camara, one of only two Portland players — along with Deni Avdija — to play all 24 games. “We’re still very together, very connected. Just focusing on us. I think we have a lot of things going against us this year. Being able to fight those things and be able to go to (overcome) adversity, I think that’s what we need for the stage we’re at right now.”
Those adversities, and the Blazers’ wild fluctuations, were laid bare in Memphis. Portland was ambushed 40-20 in the first quarter, won the middle two periods by six and then came undone 27-18 in the fourth.
“I think we need to figure out a way to be more consistent,” Camara said. “We show a lot of good things in certain games and some other games we just go completely away from it. I think that’s the main thing for us. … We know what we’re capable of doing. We’ve beaten good teams, we’re in the game almost every time. We’ve just got to be able to close games and not have bad quarters, really.”
The Trail Blazers will face a New Orleans side that is mired in a seven-game skid but constantly refuses to go down without swinging.
Five of those defeats were by single-figure margins and two came in overtime.
The Pelicans erased a 20-point halftime deficit before falling 135-132 to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.
Rookie big man Derik Queen starred with a season-high 33 points, along with 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks.
New Orleans interim coach James Borrego was full of praise for Queen, who scored 29 points after halftime.
“A special night for him,” Borrego said. “Obviously, second half, he was great. I thought he did a really good job defensively, on the boards, controlled the offense. We ran a lot of our stuff through him. I thought he was fantastic.”
Queen was excited to log his first career triple-double.
“It means a lot,” he said. “It’s pretty good for a person who didn’t have a preseason and was hurt. A lot of people doubted (me). I even had a little bit of doubt in myself, my first time being injured.”
Portland took the past four meetings between the two teams, including a 125-117 victory in New Orleans on Nov. 12, after the Pelicans won the previous seven.
–Field Level Media
