The last time the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers got together, Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving put on a show to remember. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Cleveland (14-24) at Portland (28-9) Despite Irving having the upper hand early, it was Lillard who got the last laugh. The reigning Rookie of the Year took over late and nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer as time expired to give his team a 119-116 win at Quicken Loans arena. <\/p>\n Now the two sides will face off at the Moda Center on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 10:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n The Cavaliers came up just short last time these two met, but they were a very different looking ball club. That match took place before they traded the rights to Andrew Bynum for the production of Luol Deng\u2014a perimeter player who answers a lot of their problems on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n Getting Deng involved early, even if he\u2019s not catching fire, is important in this one. It will keep the Blazers from putting Nicolas Batum on Kyrie Irving, leaving Damian Lillard to contain the All-Star guard. Chances are, you\u2019ll see a combination of Lillard, Batum and Wesley Matthews on Irving all game long, which is why it\u2019s also important for Dion Waiters to get going as well. The Blazers may have learned their lesson against Waiters last time, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll be any less focused on Kyrie Irving. Everybody knows when you face the Cavaliers that the offense goes through the 21-year-old, and his ability to create for others is just as important to defend as his\u00a0own shots.<\/p>\n As much as fans want to see another showdown between Lillard and Irving, expect LaMarcus Aldridge to be the\u00a0Blazers\u2019\u00a0No. 1 option. With the recent return of CJ McCollum to the bench, we can expect to see Lillard rest a bit more than we have in the past. It\u2019s true that if he catches fire he\u2019s the go-to scorer, but getting Aldridge involved early has been a recipe for success, and it\u2019s one the team won\u2019t deviate from come Wednesday.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s certainly the chance\u00a0for another close finish here, expect Portland to pull ahead in the end. The Blazers seemingly fell back down to Earth when they lost four out of six games between Dec. 28 and\u00a0Jan. 7, and while losses to the Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings were problematic, they were also a bit of a wakeup call. Portland\u00a0has taken\u00a0down the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics in convincing fashion over its last two, and if the team is serious about returning to its winning ways, a similar narrative will take place in this one.<\/p>\n Portland 112 \u2013 Cleveland 101<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cavaliers vs Trail Blazers The last time the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers got together, Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving put on a show to remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":67894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[60990],"class_list":["post-71714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers-vs-portland-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71759,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71714\/revisions\/71759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWednesday, Jan. 16 10:00 p.m. ET at Moda Center
\nSpread: PDX -10.5
\nO\/U: 212<\/strong>
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Cleveland<\/h3>\n
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\nWaiters had a fantastic game the last time the Cavs played Portland. The second-year guard took full advantage of subpar perimeter defense to attack the rim. Furthermore, he took advantage of the worst team in the NBA at defending the paint, scoring 25 points on an efficient 11-of-19 shooting.<\/p>\nPortland<\/h3>\n