The ten-seeded Portland Trail Blazers should be gunning for the No. 8 seed to give themselves two chances of coming out alive of the play-in tournament. In eighth place right now in the Western Conference standings and three games ahead of them are the Golden State Warriors, and with Stephen Curry out for at least nine more days, the Blazers should look to capitalize on his extended absence.
Curry has been out since Jan. 30 because of a right knee injury. The Warriors announced on Sunday that he would be re-evaluated in 10 days. It remains to be seen, though, if he will have recovered by then, although it's understandable if they decide to be extra cautious with the superstar, as he will turn 38 in less than two weeks.
Considering that Golden State is 8-13 without him this season and that its next three bouts will be against West contenders, it wouldn't be shocking if it falls from a record of 31-29 to sub-.500 by the weekend. The question is whether the Blazers can close the gap on their rival while Curry is sidelined.
Blazers off to a bad start
Unfortunately, the Blazers do not have momentum on their side. They closed their recent three-game Eastern Conference road trip with two losses, both of which were telling of their problems this season.
Against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, they couldn't solve the riddle of their opponents' stinging defense, scoring just 93 and losing by 16 points. It did not help that they went through dry spells in the first and final quarters. The Blazers missed all of their 10 3-point attempts in the opening frame and went 2-12 from downtown in the fourth after cutting the lead to 74-67 after three periods.
The following day, it was Portland's porous defense that needed some fine-tuning. It allowed the Atlanta Hawks to put up 44 points in the first stanza and couldn't bring down the margin to fewer than 15 points throughout the rest of the contest. The Blazers ended up losing 135-101.
Maybe we can chalk up the loss to having to play without Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe. However, if the Blazers plan to crash the playoffs in April, they would have to clean up their offense and defense even without two of their best players.
Clippers are creeping
As mentioned, the ideal outcome for the Blazers to reach the playoffs is at least an eighth-place finish. That would set them up for a battle against the seventh-seeded squad, and if they lose that game, they could still punch their way to the playoffs by defeating whoever comes out on top of the contest between the No. 9 and 10 seeds.
So, Portland has to capitalize on Curry's five-game absence, which might even end up being more, depending on what the re-evaluation of his health reveals.
In addition, Rip City also has to be wary of the LA Clippers, whose win on Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans propelled them to ninth place. The last thing it wants is to head into the play-in tournament as the No. 10 seed, as such an outcome will have it playing a do-or-die game on the road without the resounding support of the Blazers faithful, and where it is 13-18 so far this year.