Portland Trail Blazers: How the Rest of the Schedule could Affect Playoff Positioning

The Portland Trail Blazers are fifth in the Western Conference, but there is still a month of schedule left to go. How could these games affect the club’s playoff positioning?

One month from today, the NBA Playoffs begin. Promos for first round matchups will infect our billboards, television screens, and social media feeds. With a 41-26 record, 15 games to go, and an eight-win advantage over the ninth-placed Sacramento Kings, the Portland Trail Blazers are almost guaranteed a spot in the postseason bracket. The only question: Where?

If the season ended today, Portland would finish fifth and kick off their postseason in Oklahoma City. But there is still plenty of season to go and this conclusion is far from certain. To help determine how everything will shake up, we will look at the strength of schedule for the top 10 teams in the Western Conference.

Of these 10 teams with playoff hopes (Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland, San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves), the Blazers have the sixth easiest schedule.

No doubt, playoff positioning is an important part of March basketball. As April approaches, the conversation shifts from how teams stack up to each other, to how each of these teams’ individual players matchup to their counterparts.

Portland should keep their eyes focused on the two clubs sandwiched between them, the Oklahoma City Thunder in fourth and San Antonio Spurs in sixth.

OKC has been dominant this year on the back of MVP-caliber play from Paul George and an always vicious Russell Westbrook. However, they will be tested to end the year, with the toughest remaining schedule between the 10 teams and third toughest generally. Currently tied with Portland record-wise, strength of schedule alone indicates that Rip City has a solid chance at overtaking them for homecourt advantage.

San Antonio holds the second easiest schedule to close out the year between these Western teams. Although their toughest games come against the league’s best with the Warriors, Nuggets, Rockets, Blazers, and Boston Celtics, their easiest see them against the league’s bottom feeders with the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers twice. Being their schtick for the last 20 years, the Spurs should stay true and defeat the lesser teams. And since they’ve been rolling on a six game win streak, including victories over Milwaukee Bucks, Nuggets, and Thunder, they may continue this right on into their upcoming elite opponents.

If the Blazers keep chugging along at their current pace, there’s a very real possibility the Thunder drop to sixth and Portland is hosting San Antonio in a month. At its surface, this seems like the much preferred matchup, as OKC swept Portland in the season series while the Blazers hold a 2-1 advantage in their series with the Spurs.

Only one win above the Blazers in third, the Rockets could also fall below Rip City. Their schedule is slightly tougher than Portland’s. However, with most of their team finally back healthy and on a nine-game winning streak, this seems unlikely barring yet another injury.

Another area to watch will be towards the bottom of the playoff bracket with the LA Clippers and Utah Jazz.

The Clippers have overachieved and find themselves in seventh-place despite not having the type of star-power playoff teams generally possess. With the fourth easiest schedule of the 10 teams, they could very well continue riding this dream right into April.

They are likely the most sought-after matchup from homecourt advantage teams, as their roster is full of youth and dependent on Lou Williams to work his magic – who may find less space in April as the game slows and locks up. If the Clippers surge to end the season, watch for some top teams to cleverly drop some games to jockey for a matchup with them and the possibility of dodging the Warriors.

Opposite to LA, the Jazz have underachieved this year. Where many analysts had them as high as third in the West, they’re just limping into the playoffs now as an eight-seed with a 37-29 record. But we’ve been conditioned to watch for a late season run to propel Utah into a better seed, and this year they seem positioned to do the same. Gifted the easiest remaining schedule in the league, the Jazz should find their groove and quickly find more secure footing in postseason seeding.

Just as some teams may be enticed to lose and play the Clippers, they should be just as wary for that strategy to lead them right into a first round matchup with Utah – especially if they can work their way up to a sixth or fifth seed.

Watch for the Blazers to keep their pace and for their position to continue hovering between the three- and six-seeds, dependent on the Rockets’ depth and how the Thunder respond to their difficult schedule and the Spurs to their easy one. If the Blazers do work their way up into a higher seed, then the battle between Utah and LA becomes all the more interesting.