Portland Trail Blazers
Current Record: 2-1
Standings: 2nd in Division, 4th in Conference
I’ll be honest, it surprises me just how good the Trail Blazers are. They have some great players, particularly their backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, but I truly believe their whole is significantly better than the sum of their parts.
This is largely due to the leadership of Terry Stotts, who I consider to be one of the most underrated coaches in the league. Utah battled hard in a back and forth bout against the Blazers in the season opener, but eventually Portland proved to be too much for them to handle.
The Blazers then went on to lose a closely contested game to the Clippers before bouncing back with a thrilling overtime victory on the road in a tough Denver environment.
There’s a lot of reasons why Portland is a good team, but the one that stands out the most in my mind is the fact that they have a true closer in Damian Lillard. Time and time again, he has proven that when the stakes are high, he can be relied on to will his team to victory. In case you needed a reminder, I’ve included my personal favorite example of that below:
While several teams in the division, namely the Jazz, Wolves and Nuggets, struggle to finish games, the Blazers are just the opposite. They excel at it. And they have proven that in their two victories so far this year.
That ability to close out tightly contested games is a reason why Portland has been able to qualify for and win in the playoffs in recent years. They currently hold the longest active playoff appearance streak in the division, having qualified the last three years straight (Oklahoma City missed in 2014-15 for the first time in six years largely due to Kevin Durant’s foot injury).
Thus, while Portland currently resides in second place in the division behind the Thunder (we’ll get to them next), I believe the Blazers’ recent playoff track record and their keen ability to close games will separate them as the top team in the division by season’s end. That projection could change as the year goes on, but thus far they’ve looked the part, despite OKC’s early perfect record.