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Preview: Portland vs. Phoenix

Another win for the Portland Trail Blazers will clinch a playoff spot and inch them closer to their first Northwest Division title in six years.

It would also help alleviate any concerns over a five-game skid earlier this month.

They'll go for their fourth straight victory since that slide Monday night at home against the Phoenix Suns, who just lost to the Trail Blazers in the desert three days ago.

Portland (47-25) followed Friday's 87-81 victory over the Suns (38-36) with Saturday's 120-114 home win over Denver to begin a three-game homestand. The focus remains simply on playing quality basketball and allowing that to take care of locking in seeds.

"You can't say (clinching) isn't important, because it is, but I think we have to have more discipline of trying to go into every game and just take care of business," LaMarcus Aldridge told the team's official website.

"And if we win all the games going forward, it just happens. But I don't think you want to go into the game thinking clinch. That can put too much pressure on the game. I think if we go out and focus on playing the game, everything will work out for us."

The win over the Nuggets was a particularly impressive shooting night with the Blazers hitting 56.5 percent. Aldridge had 32 points and 11 rebounds, while Arron Afflalo contributed 21 on 8-of-11 shooting against his former team.

Afflalo has started 12 games with Wesley Matthews out, but he'd been held to 7.0 points per game and has shot 38.5 percent in his previous five. The streak has come with fellow guard and No. 2 scorer Damian Lillard averaging just 14.0 while shooting 33.3 percent.

After Oklahoma City's 109-97 win over Phoenix on Sunday, the Blazers' magic number to clinch the Northwest remains four.

"These things are important, playing for playoff seeding and playing well in general," Afflalo said. "Every win is a confidence booster and a momentum gainer for us. We all want to be playing our best basketball here in a few weeks."

The Suns' loss to the Thunder was quite damaging, and not only because they blew a 20-point lead. It also dropped them four games back of Oklahoma City for eighth place in the Western Conference, and they also have New Orleans 1 1/2 games ahead.

Markieff Morris scored 24 points for the second time in three games, and the forward is averaging 19.6 in his last nine. Marcus Morris has also upped his scoring lately, managing 16.2 over his last five.

Nevertheless, Phoenix, which is looking to salvage a split in the season series, has dropped three straight and now faces back-to-back games at Portland and Golden State on Thursday to begin a season-ending stretch with six of eight on the road.

What's worse is that all of the away games are against winning teams, while the only losing team it faces is Utah at home on Saturday.

"We'll find out what kind of character they have," Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said.

Defensively, they haven't been quite the same team in the last three games. They've allowed 101.5 points per 100 possessions on the skid after a 6-3 span with a 95.4 rating.

Phoenix's 3-point shooting in the last six games has been at a crippling 26.4 percent.

Any hope of that improving with the return of Brandon Knight might have to again be put on hold. Knight was back against the Thunder after missing the past eight games with a sprained left ankle, but he left in the third quarter and didn't return.