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POWER RANKINGS » Nearing The Finish Line In Week 26

After seven months, 80 games, 52 flights and too many bus rides to count, the Portland Trail Blazers arrive at the last week of the 2018-19 regular season sitting in fourth-place in the Western Conference.

Along the way, Portland won 51 games, vastly exceeded expectations and moving Terry Stotts into third in team history in wins, Damian Lillard cemented his status as one of the greatest players in franchise history while moving up the ledger in various statistical categories, Jusuf Nurkic proved himself worthy of All-Star consideration before the... unpleasantness, CJ McCollum, Evan Turner and Nurkic each logged triple-doubles after the team went over five seasons without one, Maurice Harkless returned to form, Al-Farqou Aminu's fans formed a hive, Jake Layman came into his own, Seth Curry reestablished himself as one of the NBA's most accurate shooters, Zach Collins make progress in fits and starts, Neil Olshey brought in Rodney Hood and Enes Kanter in moves that likely saved Portland's seasons and Skal Labisseire, Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr. all put in considerable work on the practice court. As far as regular seasons go, the Trail Blazers had a great one. They'll need to exercise some recent playoff demons in order to quiet their critics, but under any objective measure, Portland's 2018-19 regular season has been a resounding success.

Here's where the Trail Blazers end the regular season in the weekly Power Rankings. When possible, I've included their initial ranking from Week One in order to compare preseason assumptions with how the season actually shook out...

• The panel of voters at ESPN has the Trail Blazers at No. 8 this week, unchanged from last week and three spots better than their ranking at the start of the season (in which they said winning 49 games was Portland's "best case" scenario)...

The Blazers are behind the 76ers at No. 7 and ahead of the Celtics at No. 9.

• John Schuhmann at NBA.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 6 this week, unchanged from last week and six spots better than their Week One ranking...

Schuhmann has the Trail Blazers behind the Nuggets at No. 5 and ahead of the 76ers at No. 7

• Tommy Beer at Rotoworld.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 8 this week, unchanged from last week and one spot better than their initial ranking this season...

Beer has the Trail Blazers behind the 76ers at No. 7 and ahead of the Celtics at No. 9.

• Zach Harper at TheAthletic.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 7 this week, unchanged both from last week and from their initial ranking this season...

Harper has the Trail Blazers behind the 76ers at No. 6 and ahead of the Jazz at No. 8.

• Khadrice Rollins at SI.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 8 this week, two spots worse than last week but four spots better than their initial ranking...

Rollins has the Trail Blazers behind the Nuggets at No. 7 and ahead of the Thunder at No. 9.

• Grant Hughes at Bleacher Report, in rankings posted on April 5, has the Trail Blazers at No. 9 this week, one spot better than last week...

Hughes has the Trail Blazers behind the Clippers at No. 8 and ahead of the Celtics at No. 10.