Trail Blazers @ Timberwolves

Who will WIN this matchup?

Portland Trail Blazers (21-15)

@ Minnesota Timberwolves (8-29)

Current odds:

Portland Trail Blazers: (-210)

Minnesota Timberwolves: (+180)

• The line for this game is Portland by 5 points.

• The Minnesota Timberwolves began the second half of the NBA season the same way they opened the first half — with a win. Now they just have to avoid pretty much everything that happened after their initial success the first time around. The Timberwolves have a chance to create just their second winning streak of the season when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night in the opener of a two-day, two-game sequence.

• Minnesota tipped off the season with wins over Detroit and Utah before losing 29 of their next 34 games to finish the first half with the league’s worst record at 7-29. Saddled with a nine-game losing streak at the All-Star break, the Timberwolves regrouped over the eight-day break and put together arguably their best effort of the season in a 135-105 shellacking of New Orleans on the road Thursday night.

• Third-string point guard Jaylen Nowell, who moved up a seat on the bench with second-termer Jordan McLaughlin out of action, bombed in six 3-pointers in seven attempts and 28 points in all in the Timberwolves’ shocking performance against a Western Conference playoff contender.

• Interestingly, Nowell’s career-high scoring output came on the same night as fellow University of Washington alum Jaden McDaniels was pouring in a career-high of his own with 20 points for Minnesota.

• Throw in 27 points from rookie Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves needed just 16 from star big man Karl-Anthony Towns to record a season-high in points, seven more than they’d scored in any previous game, 13 more than in any previous regulation contest.

• Minnesota was on the other end of an offensive onslaught the only previous time it faced the Trail Blazers this season. Damian Lillard had 39 points that early-January night, when Portland used a 47-point second quarter as a springboard to a 135-117 home win.

• One of the stars of the Team LeBron win at the All-Star Game on Sunday, Lillard went for 30 in Portland’s second-half opener, a 127-121 home loss to Phoenix on Thursday. The Suns shot 59 percent overall and 54.2 percent on 3-pointers in the high-scoring win.

• The loss snapped a three-game winning streak. Now it’s up to the Trail Blazers to avoid something that held them back in the first half — losing streaks. Over their final 13 games of the first half, Portland had six- and three-game winning streaks. In between, they gave back more than half of their six-game run with a four-game losing skid.

• The Timberwolves beat the Trail Blazers 116-102 in their only meeting last season in Minneapolis.