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Blazers schedule lookahead: ‘Tanking’ this week’s games by level of impact

By Andrew Hanlon

Chauncey Billups, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
Chauncey Billups, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images) /
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CJ McCollum, New Orleans Pelicans. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
CJ McCollum, New Orleans Pelicans. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

2. Monday vs. New Orleans Pelicans

The Trail Blazers kick off the week by hosting the Pelicans, who are riding a four-game winning streak and who also have everything to play for. New Orleans is only a half-game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th and final play-in spot, but is also just one game back of the Golden State Warriors.

If NOLA can leapfrog Golden State, they would sit sixth in the conference standings and be prepared to avoid the play-in tournament altogether.

Maybe there’s a little extra motivation for the Blazers after some incredibly overblown comments from old pal CJ McCollum, but with the way the Pelicans are playing and with the injury list that’s been regularly coming out of Portland, it’s likely CJ and company dispatch the Blazers with relative ease on their attempted climb up the West standings.