The Trail Blazers extended their league-leading winning streak to 10 games after defeating the Miami Heat 115-99 Monday night at the Moda Center, which means it's been a month since their last loss. And in that time, Portland has gone from having a one-game lead over the Denver Nuggets for sixth-place in the West to a two-game lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder for third-place with 15 games to play.
All those wins have also resulted in the Trail Blazers moving steadily up the weekly Power Rankings. Portland shows up no lower than No. 5 on this week's rankings and are as high as No. 3. That's probably their ceiling unless one of the teams in the Rockets/Warriors/Raptors group really falls off, which is something I'm not sure anyone outside of Portland's locker room thought would be the case at this point in the season.
Yet here they are. It's only going to get more difficult to keep up their current level of play in the final month of the season -- all of the Trail Blazers' next seven games are against teams fighting for playoff position -- but they've shown over the last 10 games that they're up for any challenge.
Now onto this week's rankings...
• The panel at ESPN has the Trail Blazers at No. 4 this week, one spot better than last week…
The folks at ESPN have the Trail Blazers behind the Raptors at No. 3 and ahead of the Celtics at No. 5.
• John Schuhmann at NBA.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 4 this week, same as last week...
Schuhmann has the Trail Blazers behind the Warriors at No 3 and ahead of the Celtics at No. 5.
• Rohan Radkarni of SI.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 3 this week, one spot better than last week...
Radkarni has the Trail Blazers ahead of the Warriors at No. 4 and behind the Rockets at No. 2.
• Chris Barnewall at CBSSports.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 3, one spot better than last week...
Barnewall has the Trail Blazers behind the Rockets at No. 2 and ahead of the Warriors at No. 4.
• The panel of voters at USA Today has the Trail Blazers at No. 5 this week, unchanged from last week...
The folks at USA Today have the Trail Blazers behind the Celtics at No. 4 and ahead of the Pelicans at No. 6.
• Brad Rowland at Uproxx has the Trail Blazers at No. 4, two spots better than last week...
Rowland has the Trail Blazers behind the Raptors at No. 3 and ahead of the Jazz at No. 5.