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With the Nets hosting Portland — and rising Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija taking on Nets rookies Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf — Monday marked the first time three Israelis ever faced off in the NBA. “Yeah, it’s special,” said Nets coach Jordi Fernández. “When other countries outside the US and Europe can be represented with three players here, it means the world, and it’s a special day that everybody has to enjoy. And I think they are already. …I don’t know Deni, but I’m sure he’s excited to play. I know Ben and Danny are. “And that’s good. It’s one of the two times that we’ll see this and hopefully for many years, see how these guys grow. Obviously Deni, a career year and how much better he has gotten. And then our two young guys, they’re getting better. And I want to see this matchup over the years and how interesting, how cool it is to see them play against each other.”
Vinny Benedetto: David Adelman's succinct thoughts on NBA expansion: "Keep Portland in Portland and add Seattle. Vegas would be cool. Nashville is a nice city."
Gina Mizell: FINAL: Sixers 109, Blazers 103. That is a good win on the second game of a back-to-back, against a Portland team also fighting for play-in positioning in the West. Quentin Grimes with a season-high 31 points. Justin Edwards with 21. VJ Edgecombe with 18 and a career-high 12 rebounds. Up next: At Denver on Tuesday
Damian Lillard made it clear he wants to end things in Portland. He began his NBA career with the Blazers in 2012 and said he would like to end it with the Blazers. However, he doesn't have a definitive timetable for how much longer he wants to play and when he plans to retire. "Whenever it does end, that's definitely my plan is to be playing for the Trail Blazers in my last game of my career," said Lillard about ending his career in Portland. "I don't have a timeline. I just know that I'll play as long as I feel in my heart that I can do the things that I do. The moment that I can't do what I do, there will be no reason for me to continue to do it."
Gina Mizell: Per the Sixers’ afternoon injury report, Jabari Walker remains OUT for tonight’s game against Portland. Adem Bona and Andre Drummond are both listed as questionable with back issues. Bona played yesterday, and his designation is back injury management on the second game of a back to back.
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The Trail Blazers have maintained that the arena needed renovation to attract big events, like the NBA All-Star Game and future NCAA tournament games. The estimated total cost of the project is $600 million. "The Moda Center has become probably the oldest building in the league. There may be a building or two that are older but have already gone through significant renovations," Silver said. "So you know that this work needs to be done, not just for the basketball teams in town, but for all those events, and because I know, on behalf the economy of Portland, you guys have lost out on some big events because this arena hasn't been updated in a long time. So it's just work that needs to get done. But it seems like the spirit is there."
Scott Agness: Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith are available for the Pacers tonight in Portland. Third stop on a four-game trip. They’ve dropped 8 in a row since All-Star break.
Michael Scotto: The Portland Trail Blazers are waiving Javonte Cooke, league sources told @hoopshype. Cooke appeared in 19 games for Portland. He’s been a G League standout, averaging 22.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.9 steals for with the Rip City Remix, Portland’s G League affiliate
K.C. Johnson: Trail Blazers 121, Bulls 112 11th straight loss and 14th in 15 games. Ties for 3rd-longest losing streak in franchise history. Previous 11-gm skid occurred in 1999-2000 season. Matas Buzelis 20 pts, 7 in doubles. Jerami Grant 27 pts, 7 in doubles. Portland scored combined 43 pts off TOs/rebs
Dane Moore: Naz Reid is available for tonight’s game in Portland, the team says. The shoulder soreness had been bothering Reid prior to the break and it was irritated on Friday against Dallas. Seemed to be more lingering injury rest than something new. Both Gobert and Reid returning is meaningful against Portland’s big frontcourt.
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Then, the Nuggets caught fire, handing Portland its worst loss of the season by far: 157-103. “One of our worst games of the season,” Blazers acting head coach Tiago Splitter said. “The Nuggets had a sense of urgency to win this game. They lost last night, I think 3 of their last 5 games. And coming off the break, we were just not ready.” Led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, Denver (36-21) hit 13 of its 22 attempts (59%) from three in the first half and buried the Blazers (27-30), who simply couldn’t keep up offensively throughout a dismal night at Moda Center. Playing on the second of a back-to-back after losing to the Clippers on Thursday night, the Nuggets scored 82 in the first half against Portland — the second-most in a half in franchise history. 157 points is the most scored in a road game in Nuggets history and the most by any NBA team this season. It was the most the team has ever scored in regulation: a 184-point outburst in a loss against the Pistons in 1983 included three overtimes.
But when it came time to officially meet the Joker on Friday night in Portland, Hansen received some serious advice from the 31-year-old Serbian superstar. “He told me don’t get nervous all the time,” Yang Hansen said, translated by Liu. “He’s like, you’re a great player. Just go play.” Nerves are part of the game for any NBA rookie, but those around the Trail Blazers say Hansen can be particularly hard on himself during his brief opportunities if things don’t go according to plan. That emotion is visible each time Hansen takes the court.
Bennett Durando: Nuggets HC David Adelman pregame in Portland, his hometown: "They've gotta keep the team here. They've gotta find a way to do that. This is a basketball city. The northwest deserves two teams. And that would be crushing for this community. So I hope they can figure it out."
Chris Mannix: One thing he did say is that relocation right now is not something that the league is talking about. And that was a bit of news because while we have been discussing expansion within the league, there have been some executives that have wondered would the NBA instead of expanding decide to relocate a couple of their teams to Las Vegas and to Seattle. And there are some suspects that are out there. New Orleans and Memphis are two teams that have had some trouble attracting fans at a a high level. Portland is dealing with its own arena issue. So, they were in that mix, but Adam Silver said as of right now, there was no talks of relocation for any of these teams. And I still believe that expansion is the most likely outcome of these meetings.