Portland Trail Blazers embark on tough Eastern Conference road trip
The Portland Trail Blazers set out for a three-game road trip on the East coast. What are they up against this weekend?
The Portland Trail Blazers are on the road for Super Bowl weekend. They have been away from the Moda Center during the first weekend in February every year since the 2014-15 season. This time, they will be taking on three playoff-caliber teams from the Eastern Conference.
Coincidentally, the Blazers will be facing the Boston Celtics on the day of the “Big Game,” just hours before the city’s football team, the New England Patriots, is set to compete.
This trip is shaping up to be the Blazers’ last extended road test. Granted, they still have road dates against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs to deal with down the line. However, this is the last trip where every team on the docket could find itself in the postseason.
The test begins on Friday night when they face the Toronto Raptors. At 34-16, they are currently second in the East, two games behind Boston for first place. Blazers fans would probably like to forget the last meeting between these two teams. Toronto defeated Portland 99-85 on Oct. 30. The Raptors held them to six points in the second quarter, the fewest scored in that frame in Blazers franchise history.
Boston is next up on Sunday with a noon ET tip-off to accommodate the Super Bowl’s evening start time. The Celtics sit at the top of the conference with a 37-15 record. The C’s have managed to rally behind All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, despite losing Gordon Hayward to a gruesome injury on opening night. Their talent and success this season have set them up to be a real challenger to the Cleveland Cavaliers for this year’s Eastern Conference crown.
Portland closes out their road trip on Monday against the Detroit Pistons. This game will mark the Blazers’ first appearance at the brand new Little Caesars Arena. With the Pistons at 24-26, this seems like the easiest game of the bunch. However, Detroit’s acquisition of five-time All-Star Blake Griffin made them that much more formidable.
Griffin arrived in the Motor City on Jan. 29 via a six-player trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. He dropped 24 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks in his debut, a 104-102 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. His arrival shores up the Pistons frontcourt alongside Andre Drummond. This will surely present a challenge to the Blazers.
But Portland enters this trip on quite a roll, winning seven of its last eight games. A 124-108 shellacking of the Chicago Bulls helped the Blazers earn their first four-game winning streak of the season. It’s important that the Blazers bring that same energy into this road trip. Their opponents over the last eight games (seven teams) have combined for a .456 win percentage. Meanwhile, their next three combatants hold a .599 combined winning percentage.
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This Eastern Conference road trip will indicate if the Portland Trail Blazers have improved from the bottom-tier playoff team they have been the past two seasons. A strong showing would put them on the right track as the All-Star Break approaches.