Trail Blazers Playoffs: Portland Can Take Advantage of Their Schedule
After the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night in the Moda Rose Garden, they have an unbelievable stretch of games ahead. An amazing nine out of the next ten games are against teams with a losing record. Even better, seven of those games are at home. Has there ever been a friendlier road back-to-back than the Nets/Sixers next weekend? The NBA scheduling department might receive a few gifts from Blazers’ fans in the coming weeks.
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Nothing is guaranteed; The Trail Blazers are not exactly world beaters up to this point in the season. However, Damian Lillard is healthy and looked like himself again last night. As long as Terry Stotts double-checks his linup card each game before signing it, Rip City could enjoy a lengthy winning streak. A winning streak of any sort might catapult the Blazers to the eighth seed in the playoffs.
The Bottom Eight
*RCP Playoffs % is a complex algorithm that consists of watching NBA games and making partially educated guesses.
Utah Jazz: 15-20 LW: 1-3 RCP Playoffs % = 30% (-1%)
Injuries are becoming the theme for the 2015-2016 Utah Jazz. As Rudy Gobert made a much needed return to the lineup Thursday, Rodney Hood injured his ankle. Hood has been a bright spot this season and helped keep the Jazz afloat during December. Fortunately, the x-rays came back negative for Hood.
Portland Trail Blazers: 15-24 LW: 1-3 RCP Playoffs % = 21% (+1%)
The clerical error that kept C.J. McCollum out Wednesday will go down in Portland Trail Blazers’ infamy. However, the Blazers mostly get a pass this week after losing to the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. Those are strong teams that provide tough matchups for the current Blazers roster. With the aforementioned schedule in the coming weeks, the Blazers have a great chance to make up for the losses this week, and then some.
New Orleans Pelicans: 11-24 LW: 1-2 RCP Playoffs % = 18% (unchanged)
It seems impossible to have the New Orleans Pelicans still ranked this high. (Anthony Davis is the ONLY reason.) As I said last week, their players just do not work together. However, the trade deadline looms in February and the Pelicans are likely to be an active participant. Shuffling the roster up in any way possible is a good idea.
Sacramento Kings: 15-21 LW: 3-1 RCP Playoffs % = 12% (+6%)
The Sacramento Kings scored at least 116 points in all four of their games this week. They were also a basket away from winning at Dallas and sweeping the week. There are even Boogie Cousins and Rajon Rondo love stories leaking out of Sacramento. The year 2016 should not be trusted. The Mayans might have been a few years off predicting the end of the world.
Denver Nuggets: 13-24 LW: 1-3 RCP Playoffs % = 7% (unchanged)
The Denver Nuggets have now lost 10 of 12 and the future does not provide hope. Their next 10 games are against teams with a winning record. The highlight of the week was Will Barton’s bucket to send a game into overtime against the Warriors. The Nuggets eventually succumbed to the juggernauts of Golden State, but it was a moral victory. Moral victories are always welcome for the eight teams in this disastrous playoff race.
Phoenix Suns: 13-26 LW: 1-3 RCP Playoffs % = 6% (-4%)
Remember when the youthful Phoenix Suns pulled off 48 victories in a stacked Western Conference? It was just two years ago. Phoenix was the surprise team of the NBA. They had a young first-year coach who barely lost coach of the year honors to the G.O.A.T. Gregg Popovich. Most importantly, the Suns had three first round picks in potentially the most talented NBA draft of all-time. The future was bright in Arizona.
These days, Suns’ fans can be found on the streets of downtown Phoenix declaring that milk was not the best choice of beverage.
Minnesota Timberwolves: 12-25 LW: 0-4 RCP Playoffs % = 6% (-2%)
The Timberwolves have lost nine of ten games and really missed an opportunity to be the feel-good story of the season. After their head coaching tragedy (RIP Flip), they had a chance to grab the eight seed, dedicate the season to Flip and showcase their two young super stars in the playoffs. While Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns are putting up solid box score numbers, the Timberwolves are playing awful basketball right now.
Los Angeles Lakers: 8-30 LW: 1-3 RCP Playoffs % = 0% (Unchanged)
The Los Angeles Lakers are actually playing competitive basketball recently. The train wreck that is ‘Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour’ is slowly improving. In light of the slight positivity surrounding this team, I felt the need to dig into some statistics to caution the most optimistic of Laker fans:
When Kobe Bryant is off the court, the Lakers are a bad team; They are outscored by 5.1 points per 100 possessions. He is clearly not the sole reason for a losing record. However, it is pretty startling to see the plus/minus when Bryant is on the court: The Lakers get outscored by 13.8 points per 100 possessions.
The presence of Bryant on the court bumps up the Lakers to a whole new level of terrible.