Despite losing their last three games, the Portland Trail Blazers fell just a single spot from 16th to 17th in the latest leaguewide power rankings from NBA.com.
Their improvement from the early part of the season has largely been from their defense. John Schumann writes:
Defense continues to be where Portland has seen the bigger improvement as it has gone 15-9 since mid-January. Only the Lakers have allowed fewer points per 100 possessions than Portland (109.3) over that stretch. The biggest source of the improvement has been opponent 3-point shooting: 38% (30th) through their first 41 games and just 32.4% (third) over the last 24. So there’s probably some luck involved there. The Blazers have also seen improvement in opponent field goal percentage in the paint (from 18th to fifth) and defensive rebounding percentage (from 30th to 16th).
Portland also showed the third-most improvement in opponent points per 100 possessions behind the Lakers and (shockingly) the Washington Wizards, as the Blazers went from allowing 115.8 points before the All-Star break to just 108.8 after.
Schumann also wrote about the improvement of Scoot Henderson:
The Blazers have been 15.6 points per 100 possessions better with Scoot Henderson on the floor (plus-12.1) than they’ve been with him off the floor (minus-3.5) over these last 24 games. The bigger difference has been on offense, where Henderson now has a true shooting percentage of 55.2%, up from 48.9% last season. That’s the third biggest jump among 103 players with at least 500 field goal attempts in each of the last two seasons.
The Blazers have the NBA’s 10th-hardest remaining schedule with 17 games left as they remain four games behind the Dallas Mavericks for the West’s second and final play-in spot.