The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Los Angeles Lakers at Moda Center on Friday.

The Lakers (37-29) come into this matchup losing seven of their last nine games, trying to cope without LeBron James. He missed over a month due to an ankle issue and then re-aggravated it two games after returning. That means nobody knows when he'll be ready to play, and it has the Lakers freefalling down the standings. They currently sit sixth in the Western Conference, tied with the Trail Blazers to avoid the play-in game. That makes this a pseudo playoff game because neither of these teams wants to play in that play-in tournament. In any case, the defending champs are among the most dangerous teams, no matter where they end up seeded. With that said, Anthony Davis left Thursday's loss with yet another injury and his status is unknown at this time.

The Trail Blazers (37-29) have won five of their last six games, doing everything possible to avoid that dreaded play-in game. They're actually one of the only teams in the NBA who has played in that play-in game, and they were successful in it last season. In any case, they don't want to put that to chance again, and a victory here could put them in a great spot with only six games remaining. The guy who's really turned it around recently is Jusuf Nurkic. The big man was a revelation in the bubble last year, and he's shown glimpses of that since he started receiving a full workload just two weeks back. Over his last eight games, Nurk is averaging 15.5 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game.

These teams have played twice in Los Angeles already this year, splitting those two meetings. With that said, Portland has won 19 of their last 23 games over Los Angeles in this series.