{"id":691498,"date":"2026-04-01T08:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691498\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:22:16","slug":"new-orleans-takes-on-portland-on-5-game-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691498\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans takes on Portland on 5-game slide"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> (25-51, 12th in the Western Conference) vs. Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> (38-38, ninth in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Portland, Oregon; Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: New Orleans looks to break its five-game slide with a victory against Portland.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers have gone 25-21 against Western Conference opponents. Portland ranks seventh in the Western Conference with 32.0 defensive rebounds per game led by Donovan Clingan<\/a> averaging 7.2.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans are 16-31 against Western Conference opponents. New Orleans is second in the NBA<\/a> scoring 57.4 points per game in the paint led by Zion Williamson<\/a> averaging 15.7.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers are shooting 45.3% from the field this season, 2.3 percentage points lower than the 47.6% the Pelicans allow to opponents. The Pelicans are shooting 46.5% from the field, 0.5% lower than the 47.0% the Trail Blazers’ opponents have shot this season.<\/p>\n

The teams play for the fourth time this season. The Trail Blazers won the last meeting 122-109 on Jan. 3, with Deni Avdija<\/a> scoring 34 points in the victory.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Avdija is averaging 23.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists for the Trail Blazers. Scoot Henderson<\/a> is averaging 15.1 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Williamson is scoring 21.3 points per game and averaging 5.7 rebounds for the Pelicans. Saddiq Bey<\/a> is averaging 2.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Trail Blazers: 7-3, averaging 116.8 points, 48.6 rebounds, 27.6 assists, 8.4 steals and 7.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 105.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Pelicans: 4-6, averaging 112.3 points, 42.9 rebounds, 25.9 assists, 8.5 steals and 6.5 blocks per game while shooting 47.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 115.1 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Trail Blazers: Jerami Grant<\/a>: out (calf), Shaedon Sharpe: out (calf), Vit Krejci: out (calf), Damian Lillard: out for season (achilles).<\/p>\n

Pelicans: Trey Murphy III: day to day (ankle), Bryce McGowens<\/a>: day to day (toe).<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Orleans Pelicans (25-51, 12th in the Western Conference) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (38-38, ninth in the Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,7214,980,974,78812,5673,1407,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,471,1020,4425,814],"class_list":{"0":"post-691498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bryce-mcgowens","10":"tag-deni-avdija","11":"tag-donovan-clingan","12":"tag-event_preview","13":"tag-jerami-grant","14":"tag-national-basketball-association","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-new-orleans","17":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","18":"tag-neworleans","19":"tag-neworleanspelicans","20":"tag-pelicans","21":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","22":"tag-saddiq-bey","23":"tag-scoot-henderson","24":"tag-zion-williamson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116328487058932625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}