One game each Portland Trail Blazers starter should circle on the calendar

The Portland Trail Blazers have been handed their schedule for the 2021-2022 season. It’s a bit of a doozy, as broken down and explained by SportsIllustrated. The NBA as a whole does a pretty decent job of putting together fair schedules for its 30 teams, but it’s impossible to make everybody happy.

The Blazers seem to get the short end of the stick more often than not. Portland is stuck with 14 back-to-backs next year, tied for second-most in the league. They also project to have a more backloaded schedule, meaning that if they don’t get off to a quick start, they’ll find themselves in a difficult climb to secure a high seed placement for the playoffs. Last season, they caught a break as their schedule was more frontloaded and the second half made it easier to climb to the sixth seed and avoid the play-in tournament.

Not only do the Blazers have a relatively tough schedule, most fans outside of Portland won’t know just how bad they have it.

There’s at least one game that requires extra attention for each Portland Trail Blazers player

Portland is in the bottom half of the league in terms of nationally televised games on the docket, despite finishing tied for the eighth best record in 2020-2021. The Blazers already have plenty to play for—competing well enough to convince Damian Lillard to stay and/or winning a championship are two good ones—but the continued disrespect from the NBA’s television partners is another good chip to add to their shoulders. If they need even more motivation, there are plenty of games that each player can get hyped for within the individual matchup. Each player should have at least one game that they circle on their calendars for the upcoming season. Let’s take a look at the most important game for each Blazers starter in the early 2021-2022 season.