Portland Trail Blazers still looking for first December win

The Portland Trail Blazers have lost seven in a row, including six straight at what had been a friendly Moda Center all season

The Portland Trail Blazers were a Jekyll and Hyde team for the first 22 games of the season, going 10-1 at home and 1-10 on the road.

But since then it’s been all Mr. Hyde. Their seven game overall losing streak is Portland’s worst since 2015 and the six straight home losses mark their worst such stretch since they dropped their last eight games at the then-Rose Garden in 2013.

That was the last year the Blazers missed out on the playoffs. Their tumble from fifth to 11th in the Western Conference standings has led for some — including us here at Rip City Project — to question Chauncey Billups‘s performance as head coach and the effort of some of the Blazer veterans.

Home-court advantage in the NBA is fading

The home team traditionally won almost two-thirds of NBA games until the percentage started dropping in the early 1990s, but even then, did not dip below 60 percent until 2014-2015.

The COVID bubble seems to have also permanently dented home court advantage, but that doesn’t explain the 10-1 Moda Center start followed by seven straight losses.

Parsing out home vs. road performance may be a moot experiment for this team, as their location-based problems have more to do with bad offensive floor spacing and worse defensive positioning and rotating than which arena they’re in.

Since the week before Thanksgiving, the Blazers have been the worst team in the NBA. Let that sink in. Injuries aside, this team is far too talented to be mucking around in the bottom of the barrel.

Maybe it’s time for some drastic measures; calling in a medium or member of the local clergy to cleanse the Moda Center and team plane from whatever is ailing them. Kyrie Irving is probably available:

But hopefully the organization can find some less ethereal solutions. The trade market expanded yesterday when last summer’s free agents became trade eligible.

I’m sure Interim General Manager Joe Cronin won’t stand pat for long; he is in an audition period for the permanent job and the Blazers need significant and aggressive upgrades to get themselves back into title contention, or at least the playoff picture.

Let’s hope they’re coming soon.