The Portland Trail Blazers’ fight for the play-in seems to be all but extinguished following an ill-timed four-game losing streak. This most recent skid also means the Blazers took a small tumble in the latest power rankings from NBA.com.
NBA.com writer John Schuhmann acknowledged the Blazers dying postseason hopes as he dropped the franchise from No. 19 to No. 22 in the rankings. Alongside the ranking, Schuhmann took a short dive into Portland’s defensive numbers this season, showing the Blazers are trending up in that category.
The Blazers have been a worse-than-average defensive team, but this was still a breakthrough year on that end of the floor, where they ranked in the bottom four in each of the last four seasons.
They’ve actually seen the third biggest jump in opponent 3-point percentage from last season. But their opponents have shot just 56.5% in the paint, the league’s 11th lowest mark and down from 61.3% (30th) in ’23-24. That paint defense has been strongest with Robert Williams III (51.8%) or Donovan Clingan (53.7%) on the floor.
Schuhmann also added an interesting note at the end of his section about Portland: The Blazers are quite good against sub-.500 teams, and they’re about to face a lot of them over the remaining seven games of the regular season. So unless there’s some sort of tanking intervention, Portland could chalk up several wins here shortly.
The Blazers had won 15 straight games against other teams that are currently below .500 until they lost in Sacramento on Thursday. They’ll play their next five games against that currently-under-.500 group before finishing their season with visits from the Warriors and Lakers.
That lighter section of the schedule begins with a road matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific.