Watch Live: Brooklyn Nets vs. Portland Trailblazers, 3:00 PM EST on YES Network

The Brooklyn Nets are back home on Sunday to kick off a 7-game homestand against the Portland Trailblazers.

The Blazers, without much help from Damian Lillard who has been hurt, have been playing way above expectations this season. While the Nets, well, you know how they’re playing.

It would be unwise even as the Nets have most of their core healthy to overlook the Blazers. Hopefully, though, the Nets can get this homestand off to a nice start on Sunday.

WHO: Brooklyn Nets (9-11) vs. Portland Trailblazers (11-8)

WHEN: 3:00 p.m. est

WHERE: YES Network (tv and app), WFAN-FM (radio)

Game preview.

For the Blazers, as usual, it’s about Lillard’s health. Now 32 years old he’s missed three straight and is expected to miss at least another week. Of the 19 games the Blazers have played, he’s missed eight. When the Nets beat the Blazers, 109-107, in a very satisfying win out on the west coast, Portland was leading the West with a 10-4 record. Since then, they’ve dropped to 11-8 and fifth in the West. As bad as the Nets have been on the offensive boards of late, the Blazers have been lacking in defensive rebounding. So maybe a standoff? Portland will likely give the Nets trouble out on the perimeter, ranking eighth overall in the league with more than enough 3-point shooters to make good switching imperative.

Even with Lillard and the others out, the Blazers still have the steady and often explosive Jerami Grant, the wunderkinds Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe and big big man Jusuf Nurkic. They are a dangerous team.

For more on the Blazers, check out Blazers Edge.