The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Los Angeles Clippers at Moda Center on Sunday.

The Clippers (37-34) are playing some of their best basketball right now, winning four of their last five games coming into this matchup. This is the club everyone's been waiting to see, moving Los Angeles to the five-seed in the Western Conference. This team's main goal is to avoid the play-in tournament because the Golden State Warriors are just 1.5 games behind in seventh. There's also a chance LA could climb to fourth, sitting 0,5 games behind the Phoenix Suns. That's ironic because LA and Phoenix are two of the most touted teams in the west, and it would be a battle to see them go at it in the first round of the playoffs.

The Trail Blazers (31-39) suffered another defeat on Friday against the Boston Celtics, and their playoff hopes are slowly vanishing in a convoluted Western Conference. Portland now sits 13th in the conference but are just 2.5 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers in 10th. That means Portland has a lot of work to do to catch those clubs, and it's looking like this is the worst team of the play-in contenders. That defeat on Friday marked the Trail Blazers fifth straight defeat, giving them eight losses in their last 10 games in total. What makes that even more bizarre is the fact that Damian Lillard is the leading scorer in the NBA in that span, scoring nearly 40 points per game. There's some thought he'll be rested when this team is eliminated but look for him to keep going nuts as long as they stay alive.

These teams played on November 29, with Los Angeles prevailing, 118-112. That gives the Clippers 10 wins in their last 11 meetings with the Trail Blazers in total.