The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Orlando Magic at Moda Center on Friday.

The Magic (12-16) come into this matchup losing five of their last six games, with all five fixtures coming against tough competition. In fact, they took defeats at the hands of the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks in that span. Those were five of the biggest favorites to reach the Finals this season and Orlando fans are just happy to see that portion of the schedule behind them. There is one glaring issue that doesn't have to do with the schedule though, as the offense continues to struggle. The Magic currently sit 29th in scoring with just 103.5 points per game and if that continues, this team will have a tough time reaching the postseason.

The Trail Blazers (12-16) have won three of their last four headed into this matchup and that's an extremely promising sign for the future. This is a club that had some seriously high expectations coming into the year and fans have been waiting for a small spurt to kick-start their season. The good play correlates with the addition of Carmelo Anthony and it's hard to complain about what he's giving this club. The former All-Star is averaging 16.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game which exceeded most expectations when he signed a few weeks ago. If he can continue to do that while Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Hassan Whiteside all keep performing, this club should fight their way back into playoff contention.

Portland has dominated this series over recent years, winning their last five games against Orlando.