Portland Trail Blazers: Chance To Seize 8th Place Finally Arrives

The Portland Trail Blazers would control their playoff destiny with a win Tuesday night over the Denver Nuggets.

The Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets will face off Tuesday night at the Moda Center for control of eighth place in the Western Conference.

This game has been a long time coming for Portland. The Blazers went 23-33 before the All-Star break and have gone 12-5 since. A win allows the Blazers to control their postseason destiny for the rest of the season via tiebreakers and an easier schedule.

The Nuggets have held eighth place since Feb. 3. On that date, they defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 121-117. They seized the spot from a Blazers team that fell 108-104 to the Dallas Mavericks.

Denver closed out the rest of February with a 5-6 record. Portland suffered a worse fate, going 2-6 over the same span and falling to 10th in the West.

Both teams turned things around to begin March. They each went 6-2 in their first eight games of the month.

But from there, the gap began to close. Portland has continued to roll, going 5-1 following that start. However, Denver has gone 2-3 over the same span.

The Nuggets’ sole possession of eighth place ended Sunday night. The New Orleans Pelicans defeated Denver 115-90, while Portland won at the Los Angeles Lakers 97-81.

Star guard Damian Lillard told The Oregonian that the team was preparing for this matchup well in advance of Tuesday.

"“We talked about getting ourselves to this point,” Damian Lillard recalled of the team’s discussion in Orlando. “That it was going to be a lot of hard work if we wanted to make it a meaningful game when it came time.”"

“The Orlando discussion” is referencing talks the team most likely had around the time of their Feb. 23 game against the Orlando Magic. The Blazers won that game 112-103. After closing out February with back-to-back losses, Portland has gone 11-3 in the month of March.

Portland Trail Blazers /

Portland Trail Blazers

Another win Tuesday would put Portland in the driver’s seat in regard to their playoff hopes. Playoff tiebreakers are one of the reasons this is possible.

In the event that Portland and Denver are tied for eighth at the end of the regular season, the first tiebreaker would be head-to-head record.

Portland currently leads the season series 2-1. This occurred when the Blazers notched an overtime win in October and a regulation W in November before losing by 12 in December. A win Tuesday would clinch the series 3-1 for Portland and put the Blazers in control moving forward.

However, if Denver wins, tying the series 2-2, intra-division records would be the next tiebreaker. Both teams play in the Northwest Division, where the Trail Blazers are 8-3 against their rivals. Denver is 5-8 against the division.

Portland has four more division games remaining. They’re set up a bit oddly, so that the Blazers face the Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz on the road, then host them in Portland in the same order.

This is partly due to the game at Minnesota being a rescheduled matchup that was meant to be played on March 6.

The Blazers are 2-0 against Minnesota and 1-1 against Utah.

Meanwhile, Denver has only two division games left. Both of them are against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Nuggets are 0-2 in that season series.

In addition to the tiebreakers, the teams’ remaining schedules also prove favorable for the Trail Blazers.

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Portland has nine games remaining. Seven of them will be at the Moda Center, where they are 19-15. According to NBA.com, the strength of schedule for their last nine games is .479.

Meanwhile, Denver also has nine games left in 2016-17. However, seven of them will be away from their home base, the Pepsi Center. That two-game reprieve will happen on April 7 and 9 against Pelicans and Thunder, respectively.

Other than that, the Nuggets are on the road, where they are 14-20. The strength of schedule for their final games is .557.

Portland has come a long way from where they were at All-Star break, putting together a remarkable run to get them back in the playoff picture. From the tiebreakers to the remaining schedules, the numbers swing in favor of the Blazers.

But in order to officially make the eighth seed theirs, they have to do the most important part: win the games in front of them. That includes defeating a division rival that had kept them at arm’s length for almost two months.

Next: Latest Power Rankings--Celtics Pushing For No. 1 Seed

The Portland Trail Blazers fought to get to this point. Now they have the chance to take control.

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