The Portland Trail Blazers entered Thursday’s nationally televised contest against the Houston Rockets as the hottest team in the NBA. They’d won 15 of their last 18 games, and as Bleacher Report’s Josh Martin stated following Monday’s victory over the Brooklyn Nets, “Come playoff time, no Western Conference club will be safe in the first round—not even the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.”
Although the Blazers ultimately dropped that contest against Houston, they look as if they have upset potential written all over them when the postseason rolls around. But there’s one small detail to consider: In order to even make the playoffs, they have to keep their momentum going into a tough late-season stretch that’s right around the corner.
Following the home showdown with Houston—a team that is loaded with enough talent to ignore its chemistry issues in Thursday’s massive comeback—the Blazers hit the road on an East-Coast swing. The trip begins Saturday, Feb. 27 in Chicago and wraps on Sunday, March 6 against the Detroit Pistons.
This stretch also includes a Boston Celtics team that decided it was playing well enough it didn’t need a superstar at the trade deadline, as well as the Toronto Raptors, who have a legitimate claim as the East’s No. 2 team behind the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Despite coming off a six-game road trip, the Blazers won’t have much of a chance to enjoy the familiar confines of the Moda Center. Following a home game against the Washington Wizards, Portland travel south to face the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Then the team gets one single home contest against the Orlando Magic before hitting the road to consecutively face four-fifths of the Southwest Division.
The four-game trip ends on Saturday, March 20 against the Dallas Mavericks, who will be fighting with Portland for playoff positioning late in the year. And then wouldn’t you know it, the Blazers’ next game at home happens to be against the same feisty Mavs (followed by yet another road contest, this time against the Los Angeles Clippers.)
To close out the year, the schedule lightens up; however there are challenges still ahead. With two gimmes in the Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings immediately after the Clippers, Portland gets its second matchup of the year against the Celtics followed by a game with the Miami Heat. Then it’s back on the road to face the Warriors, who aren’t going to let Damian Lillard score 51 points with their pursuit of the single-season win record likely still in sight.
Although the season finale sees Portland taking on a very winnable game against the Denver Nuggets, the stretch that comes before it will have as much impact on this playoff positioning as any other stretch throughout the year. The Blazers currently hold the seventh spot out West, tied with the Dallas Mavericks for sixth (Mavs own the tiebreaker) and one game ahead of those pesky Rockets.
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