Portland Trail Blazers hurting as tough final schedule, playoffs loom

The Blazers may have lost more than just a game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. They may have lost Damian Lillard, too. But for how long?

When it rains, it pours — right, Rip City? One minute, the Blazers are riding a 13-game winning streak. The next minute, they’re losing to bad teams and watching three of their stars limp around the locker room.

First Maurice Harkless.

Then Ed Davis.

And now Damian Lillard?

Say it isn’t so.

Yah, it’s so.

Blazers vs. Mavericks

First things first: The Trail Blazers (48-30) had no business losing to the Dallas Mavericks (24-54) Tuesday.

Last week’s loss in Memphis may have been a fluke, especially since Portland was playing without Lillard (in Portland awaiting the birth of his child) and was at the tail end of a short but relatively successful road trip.

But losing to Dallas? With Lillard on the court?

Unacceptable.

Blazers head coach Terry Stotts felt the same way:

What’s worse, if the Blazers had taken care of business against Dallas like they should have, Lillard would have probably been on the bench at the end of the game instead of on the court trying to complete a comeback that never materialized.

Lillard’s Ankle

Lillard said late Tuesday that he was in considerable discomfort.

“It was painful,” Lillard said. “I was able to finish the game, but it’s a lot worse when the game is over.”

Ominously, Lillard wasn’t able to walk to the team bus.

And now that we know Lillard’s listed as “day-to-day” and is likely to miss Thursday’s tilt against the Rockets, we need to take stock of the Blazers’ walking wounded.

Blazers’ Mounting Injuries

Typically, teams take a “next man up” mentality when a player gets hurt. But with Harkless (knee surgery; to be reevaluated next week) and Davis (sprained ankle; but he says he’ll be back for Saturday’s game against the Spurs) already out, the Blazers lack of depth is becoming a serious concern.

Especially since the final four games of the season are all against teams still in the thick of the playoff hunt. Over the next seven days, the Blazers will play Houston, San Antonio and Denver on the road before finishing up the season at home against the Utah Jazz.

Portland is 0-3 this season against the Rockets, 1-1 against the Spurs, and 1-2 versus both the Nuggets and the Jazz.

And although Portland has a three-game lead on both the Spurs and the Jazz, that third spot is still up for grabs. The Blazers’ ability to maintain a firm grip on that third seed is in serious jeopardy if Lillard is unable to play. Portland will need the other contenders for that third spot to lose games on their own if Portland isn’t able to beat them.

Is There A Bright Side To This?

The Blazers’ franchise player is already thinking about the playoffs.

“I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance,” Lillard said to NBC Sports Northwest, “but I’m going to be smart about it. It’s the end of the season, we are going into the playoffs, so I have to be smart that one thing doesn’t turn into another.”

Can the Blazers win without Lillard? They’ve gone 5-3 without him this season. But this final stretch of games against teams all vying for playoff position presents a difficult challenge. And considering that the Blazers couldn’t even beat the awful Memphis Grizzlies without Lillard …

Blazers’ Road Ahead

Lillard’s injury comes at a time when Portland appears more and more vulnerable. They’ve gone 4-4 over their last eight games, including big wins over the Thunder, the Pelicans and the Clippers. But they’ve also dropped completely winnable games against the Grizzlies and, now, the Mavericks.

If Lillard, Davis and Harkless are unable to play during the final four games of the season, Portland will definitely have to see an uptick in its three-point shooting; that’s been a strong point for them for most of the season. But the Blazers’ long-range accuracy has taken a plunge in the last 12 games, during which Portland has the league’s worst three-point shooting percentage (31.3 percent).

The Blazers are also going to have to get back to playing solid defense — another strong point for the team this season. But during the last eight games, the Blazers defense has played like a middle-of-the-road team.

Naturally, the loss of Harkless and Davis has affected those numbers. And the additional minutes piling up for players like Pat Connaughton, who has been dreadful from three lately (6/22), has also caused the team’s three-point shooting percentage to plummet.

But it might be the poor defensive performances that are the biggest cause for concern. Shooters gotta shoot, and the law of averages says the Blazers are gonna start hitting threes. But all the threes in the world aren’t going to be enough to overcome a porous defense that has made lousy teams like Dallas and Memphis look like juggernauts.

Next: Trail Blazers begin Texas trip with loss to Mavericks, 115-109

The Blazers need to get healthy, first and foremost. Hopefully they’ll eke out a win or two against those difficult upcoming opponents. And hopefully they’ll get some help from other teams to secure that third seed sooner rather than later. That way, players can rest up and get ready for the playoffs.

As we know, it’s a whole new ballgame once the playoffs get underway. And unfortunately for Rip City, the Blazers don’t look nearly as ready for the playoffs as they did just a week or two ago.