WATCH Trail Blazers vs. Raptors Live Stream Online: NBA 2016 Rival Rankings & Playoff Updates

Basketball's back for the official 2015-2016 NBA season, so get ready, MstarsNews readers!

The Portland Trail Blazers battle it out on the court against the Toronto Raptors in Week 18 of the regular season on Friday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. EST from the Air Canada Centre. Read on to see where fans can watch and listen to a live stream of the highly-anticipated Friday evening basketball game online and catch up-to-date feeds and coverage on highlight plays and scores.

Now in mid-season, both Portland and Toronto maintain impressive top spots in Marc Stein's official NBA power rankings for ESPN.com (out of a total 30 teams):

Raptors (3): "The Raps were on a best-in-franchise-history tear of 17-3 before they beat Cleveland at home in a nail-biter that pushed 'em to 11-8 in games this season when held to less than 100 points. San Antonio is the only other team in the league this season with a winning record (12-7) when held below triple digits, so there really couldn't have been a much better time to rest Kyle Lowry than Sunday night."     

Record: 40-19 (2nd in Eastern Conference).

Trail Blazers (8): "Portland is a heady 13-2 since Jan. 23, which accounts for the league's second-best record in the span behind only the Warriors -- whose only loss in that span, of course, was inflicted by these same Blazers. Better yet: Amid cries that the recent success has been schedule-aided, Damian Lillard & Co. just began 11 of 13 games on the road with an impressive back-to-back sweep in Chicago and Indy."

Record: 33-29 (7th in Western Conference).

Tonight's exciting game will be broadcasted live on local sports channel CSNW.

For fans who want to try out a free live stream (which may mean downloading a torrent), click here. Also try this or another option.

Also check out NBA TV for more schedules and game updates.

ESPN, ESPN Scoreboard, and NBA.com are all good sources for up-to-date game coverage and feeds.

More radio listening options for Raptors and Trail Blazers.

Official NHL team websites: Raptors and Trail Blazers.

Enjoy the exciting b-ball game from Canada this evening, and always stick with MstarsNews for additional NBA gameday coverage this week. Which top conference rival will snag the big win today?