Portland Trail Blazers
Current Record: 38-38
Standings: 3rd in Division, 8th in Conference
All season long I’ve expressed my surprise at the fact that Portland was outside of the playoff mix looking in and continually hinted that I had a feeling that they would find their way back in. While that is now finally the case, I must admit that I’m shocked it’s taken this long.
The Blazers have been an enormous disappointment for most of the season, but that mind-blowing 13-3 record in the month of March has propelled them to new heights and is quite honestly making them appear dangerous at just the right time.
It is worth noting that five out of their last six wins have been against teams that find themselves currently out of the playoff picture, so perhaps their final stretch of games that features the Jazz twice as well as the Spurs will be more telling about how legit the Blazers really are. Then again, the month of March did include wins over the Thunder (twice), Spurs, Hawks, Heat and Rockets, so perhaps Portland has already proven that they’ve arrived.
Since beginning of March, @trailblazers have best win percentage in NBA and Damian Lillard is a big reason why: https://t.co/OmADKFRBNm
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 3, 2017
Nevertheless, especially in wake of the recent news that their newly acquired starting center Jusuf Nurkic, who has been an absolute monster for this team, will miss the remainder of the regular season with a fibular fracture, I expect Portland to struggle to maintain their incredible level of play somewhat.
Along with providing an enormous spark and a renewed energy to Portland, Nurkic has averaged 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds in a Blazers uniform and has posted some incredible games such as his recent 33-point triple-double against his former Nuggets team and a 28-point, 20-rebound explosion earlier last month against Philadelphia.
His presence will most definitely be missed, but although I presume that Portland will slip somewhat in his absence and may not be quite as daunting as they would have been otherwise in the postseason, it appears more than likely that the Blazers have hit their stride enough to prevent them from falling out of the playoff mix. Thus it’s likely that they’ll remain ahead of Denver and keep their spot at third place in the division.