Due to changes in the schedule brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, teams have found themselves regularly hosting the same opponent in consecutive games this season, something that rarely occurred in the standard 82-game schedule. The Trail Blazers have had two such series this season, and on both occasions, they won the first game and then lost the second.
They’ll try to break that habit when the host the New Orleans Pelicans, a team they defeated Tuesday night in the most improbable fourth-quarter comeback in the NBA this season, Thursday night in the second game of a two-game series at the Moda Center.