As of yesterday afternoon, the Portland Trail Blazers were ranked sixth in the league in offense, and third(!) in the league in defense. You read that right – currently the Trail Blazers are a better defensive team than offensive team. Bask for a moment in the beauty that is “third in the league in defense,” because it is a far cry from where the team has been in recent years.
The Trail Blazers’ offense has had no problems humming along in recent years, but, as most fans would tell you, it has been the defense that has not been holding up its end of the bargain (26th two years ago, 16th last year). The tides have now shifted, and the once porous defense is more than holding its own.
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I’ve covered why this sudden improvement on the defensive end may be happening, so now I’m more interested in what it means going forward. Having played 29 games, the Trail Blazers have now completed over a third of the season. This, while not quite a huge sample size, is certainly enough for fans to be cautiously optimistic that this trend can continue for the rest of the year.
In fact, when I wrote that last article about the Trail Blazers’ defense, they were ranked fifth in the league. Instead of slipping down the rankings, they actually managed to improve. Being the third best defensive team in the league isn’t something that just happens, particularly over nearly 30 games.
It is this improvement on the defensive end that can turn the Trail Blazers into a legitimate contender. Each of the last four NBA championship teams (Spurs, Heat, Heat, Mavericks) had a top-10 rank in both offense and defense.
That seems to be the general recipe for a deep playoff run – at least top 10 offense paired with at least a top 10 defense. Both such benchmarks are well within reach this year for the Trail Blazers, so there is no reason to think that they cannot be one of the teams to make a deep playoff push. With so many contracts up in the air after this season (Aldridge, Lopez, and Matthews being the major ones), showing evidence of playoff success is a great way to convince players to stay.
What makes the Trail Blazers’ defensive success even more impressive is the fact that they are doing it in the Western Conference. As of this writing, 10 of the top 14 offenses in the league are in the West (which is just ridiculous). The Trail Blazers play 52 of their 82 games against the West, so they are going against the best of the best on a consistent basis. Despite this, they have risen admirably to the occasion.
As a final note, it must be mentioned that the Trail Blazers could be due for a bit of a defensive slide now that Robin Lopez will miss six weeks with a broken hand. Lopez is an integral part of the team’s defense, since he is a bona fide rim protector. Luckily, much of the Trail Blazers’ defensive success is due to having a system, rather than relying on individual players’ talents, so hopefully his replacements are able to adequately hold down the fort in his absence.