5) Portland Trail Blazers (4-2)
Last month: 8
In a continuation of what we saw after the Jusuf Nurkic trade last February, the Portland Trail Blazers have been pretty good this season. They’re outscoring opponents by more than 13 points per game. In doing so, they’ve corralled a league-best 56.3 percent of available rebounds, limited turnovers and led the NBA in 3-point shooting at 44 percent.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum continue to be awesome offensively, combining to score 50 points per game. However, Nurkic needs to be singled out. The former Nuggets big is averaging 15 points, 10 rebounds and nearly two blocks per contest.
They’ve got a measuring-stick game against the Toronto Raptors on Monday.