by DALLAS, Sporting Alert – Two games are slated for Thursday night and both will be televised live nationally on TNT and streaming live on Watch TNT online.
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At 8:00 pm ET, Western Conference powerhouses San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors will go head-to-head at AT&T Center.
Following that game, star rookie Lonzo Ball and the Los Angeles Lakers will take on the Portland Trail Blazers inside Moda Center, starting at 10:30 PM.
The Warriors (5-3) enter this game fresh off a big win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, but are still searching for an early-season spark.
Despite winning four of its last five games overall, Golden State is still struggling on defense — with the defending champion giving up an average of 114.1 points per game, which is ranked 28th in the NBA this campaign.
Steve Kerr’s men lead the league in points scored per game, at 121.0 and assists per game, 30.9.
“Our defense and our turnovers have been kind of our Achilles’ heel so far,” Curry said. “Scoring the ball hasn’t been a problem.
“It’s just the other things we need to do to be a well-rounded team and the team we expect to be. (Against the Clippers), our defensive effort got us to where we wanted to be, and we kind of controlled the game from the start.
“We took care of the basketball — we played Warriors basketball, and now we have to sustain it.”
Meanwhile, after starting the season with four successive victories, San Antonio (4-3) has lost three straight on the road and will be hoping to snap out of the skid in quick time.
As expected, Kawhi Leonard (right quadriceps tendinopathy) and Tony Parker (left quadriceps tendon surgery) are both out for Thursday’s game, while the club also revealed that Joffrey Lauvergne (sprained right ankle) will also miss the game.
Following defeats to Orlando and Indiana, the Spurs were second best against the Boston Celtics in a 108-94 defeat on Monday.
“We actually played better even though we got our (butt) kicked,” Spurs coach Greg Popovich said.
“I saw some things that I liked, but we got a lot of stuff to go over with a lot of new guys.”
With Leonard and Parker still out and Danny Green struggling recently, the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, who is scoring 23.6 points per game to lead the team, Pau Gasol and Rudy Gay are expected to continue to pick up the slack for San Antonio.
In the night’s other game, that will be televised live on TNT and streaming live TNT online, the Lakers and the Trail Blazers will clash in the first of their three meetings for the season.
Ball and Los Angeles (3-4) come into Thursday night’s game against on high spirit after their 113-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday at Staples Center, but must brace for a difficult challenge at Moda Center.
The home side will be lead by point guard Damian Lillard, who is averaging 25.4 points, 6.0 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game this season.
CJ McCollum will also be one the top contributors for Portland (4-4) and he’s averaging 22.1 points and 5.3 rebounds this season.
The Trail Blazers, however, will be without forward Al-Farouq Aminu, who rolled his right ankle going for a rebound in Wednesday’s loss to the Utah Jazz and was walking in boot afterward.
