The Portland Trail Blazers hold 8th place in the West through 50 games. Can they hold on to that position in their two games over Super Bowl weekend?
The Portland Trail Blazers moved into eighth place in the Western Conference on Wednesday. They did so without lifting a finger.
The Denver Nuggets fell to the Memphis Grizzlies 119-99 that night. The loss dropped the Nuggets to 21-27 on the season. The idle Trail Blazers, resting a night after a 115-98 win over the Charlotte Hornets, moved up a spot.
The Nuggets were eighth in the West for 15 days. They took the position from the Trail Blazers with a Jan. 17 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. But now the Trail Blazers, at 22-28, are back in the catbird seat.
Portland will look to hang on to that position in their next two games over Super Bowl weekend.
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The Blazers are set to host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday in front of a national television audience on ESPN. They then head to the Sooner State for a Sunday matinee against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Both games are winnable on paper, but could present challenges if the Trail Blazers aren’t careful.
Friday’s game against the Mavericks pits two surging teams against one another. The Blazers have won four of their last five games. This comes after a 6-17 stretch that featured a six-game losing streak. It had us wondering what was wrong in Portland.
Portland Trail Blazers
Dallas, meanwhile, has won eight of its last 11. The stretch started with their Jan. 12 victory in Mexico City over the Phoenix Suns. The team has gone 17-17 after starting the season with an abysmal 2-13 record.
The Mavericks are simply resilient. Head coach Rick Carlisle maintains a winning mentality, though he is aware they aren’t the most talented team. The older players on the roster are too prideful to tank the season and the young players are looking to prove themselves nightly.
Shooting guard Seth Curry is Dallas’s most dangerous player. He already came into the season as a viable outside threat, shooting 39.7 percent from three through Jan. 9. But now he has transformed into ruthless scorer from everywhere on the court.
Curry is shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 47.5 percent from three over the last 11 games.
Unlike most teams, rim protection and chasing shooters off the arc won’t be enough to beat Dallas. The Mavericks also shoot a league-best 45.7 percent from eight to 16 feet from the basket.
So not only will Portland have to worry about a drive or a three, but also account for pull-ups and short corner jumpers. Staying tight on Mavericks players and aggressively contesting shots should mitigate that issue.
Despite featuring MVP candidate Russell Westbrook, Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder could be the easier of the two matchups.
The Thunder have dropped their last three games. The catalyst of this slump was the loss of Enes Kanter to injury.
Kanter fractured his right forearm on Jan. 26 in a 109-98 win over Dallas. He did so when he punched a chair in frustration during a second-quarter timeout. Kanter will be out for the next two months.
Kanter averaged 14.4 points per game and came off the bench in all 41 games he played. He is adept at finishing at the rim and knocking down the occasional mid-range shot in order to stretch the floor.
Losing him makes the Thunder offense more predictable. Kanter isn’t there to draw post defenders out of the lane and free up driving lanes for the rest of the team. Without open lanes, the Thunder have been forced to kick out and shoot threes.
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Three-point shooting was a facet Oklahoma City already struggles with.
OKC shot 45.8 percent from the field and 32.7 percent from three (on 25.9 attempts per game) through Jan. 26. That has plummeted to 36.8 percent from the field and 25.3 percent from three (on 30.3 attempts per game) in the three games since.
Westbrook will most likely put up impressive numbers when facing the Blazers. The defense can only hope to keep him under a triple-double. The focus, instead, should fall on forcing the rest of the team to produce.
On offense, a healthy dose of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum should be enough to get past the recently reeling Thunder defense. OKC has conceded 114.3 points per game over its last three. Meanwhile, Lillard and McCollum have averaged a combined 50.8 points per game in their last five.
Portland has won four of its last five games and worked its way back into eighth place. Commitment to defense and consistent offense from the usual suspects will be crucial to conquering the two weekend matchups.
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Winning these games will be vital to entrenching the Trail Blazers’ standing as a playoff team.