The West Playoff Race is Tight, but the Portland Trail Blazers “Know What it Takes”

Although the Western Conference playoff race is tight, the Portland Trail Blazers feel confident to end their season.

With just 15 games remaining, the Portland Trail Blazers’ fifth-seed in the Western Conference remains a precarious position. Only one win separates them from the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder (with OKC owning the tiebreaker) and just two victories are between them and the eighth-placed Los Angeles Clippers. Questions over “where?” and “who?” will surround Portland’s first round matchup until the season concludes.

Thankfully, it’s practically all but certain that the Blazers will make the playoffs. The surprising Sacramento Kings’ playoff hopes are dwindling as they’ve dropped seven of their last 10 and currently sit in ninth-place with eight wins behind Rip City. As Sacramento has deteriorated, Portland has grown stronger.

No, the Blazers aren’t atop the standings. But superstar Damian Lillard doesn’t see this as a statement on the team. Rather, he views it as a statement on the “Western Conference Playoff Race” in general. He told the Oregonian’s Joe Freeman:

"“This is typical. I think the last four or five years it’s been like this in the West. Just really close. You drop a game, then you drop a few slots in the standings. Win a few and move up. It’s a tight race once again, like it always is. A more inexperienced team might have trouble with it […] But we’ve been through it…”"

As is the nature of the beast, the Blazers have been all around the West’s 1-8 seeds this season. But after several years of jockeying for position, the Blazers understand that a team is more than what their nominal place in the standings says they are.

Head Coach Terry Stotts told Freeman:

"“What I like is we’ve done it before and we know what it takes.”"

Since the All-Star Break, the Blazers hold the league’s second-best offensive (115.7 pts/game) and net ratings (6.6). The big three in Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic are combining for 65.4 points per game. Maurice Harkless is playing his best basketball of the season. What’s more, all of this is coming as Rodney Hood and Enes Kanter, pieces acquired at the February 7 trade deadline, become acclimated with the team.

If this all feels familiar, it’s because it is. Following All-Star weekend last season, Portland went on a 12-game winning streak and closed out the season going 17-7 to earn a 49-33 record and the third-seed. Then, well, New Orleans happened.

Clearly, late-season success does not always correlate to meaningful postseason success. Portland’s first round results made their exciting stretch look more like a premature peak in retrospect.

But as Lillard hints, this year’s iteration feels built on a stronger foundation than last year’s:

"“I love where we are. It feels like (we are) a complete team. It feels like our style of play is very sustainable for us. We can be successful like this. I like that about the way things are right now.”"

This Blazers team appears to be clicking more together as a unit. Rather than playing above themselves, players look be growing more in their consistency and fit within the rotation.

Portland undoubtedly belongs in the playoffs. They knew it took grit to get to their current position to start the year, and they know it will take thick skin to watch their turbulent seeding to end the year. But no matter who they play, regardless of their seeding, they will need to prove this team is hitting their groove and not peaking once again.