The Trail Blazers have willed their way to two timely wins in a row to stop a seven-game losing streak, their longest since 2015. Portland did just enough this week to stay within play-in contention but will need to build momentum and keep streaking to grind back into better positioning in the Western Conference playoff picture.
It took big minutes and characteristically big games from Damian Lillard, who after a slow start to the season, appears to be back in superstar form. Dame has scored 75 points in as many minutes over the last two wins including a season-high 43 points against Charlotte. It was Lillard’s 40th career game with 40-plus points, making him one of 25 players in league history to score at least 40 points 40 or more times.
The Trail Blazers turned the ball over a league-worst 19 times per game over this week’s three-game stretch, but were counterintuitively 2-1 over that same span, including just the second road win of the season over a Grizzlies team that had won nine of their last 10 games, and a home win against the Hornets in which the Blazers scored 81 points in the first half. The Blazers were top five in threes made and free-throws made over that same span and were able to shoot their way to victory the last two games fuelled by big shooting nights from the likes of Damian Lillard, Norman Powell, and Ben McLemore.
Norman Powell has scored 20+ points in five of the last seven games starting at shooting guard in the seven-game injury absence of CJ McCollum. He scored 28 points including 5-8 from 3-PT in Sunday’s 105-100 win over Memphis. Ben McLemore contributed 28 points in 27 minutes off the bench in Friday’s 125-116 win over Charlotte. His six threes in the second quarter were one shy of the franchise record for threes in a quarter (McCollum, seven). With still no word on CJ McCollum’s return from injury, the production from the other guards has been a welcome sight in Portland.
Coming in as low as No. 23 and as high as No. 21 in this week’s power rankings, Portland is trending in the right direction but still sits in the bottom third of the league. After last week’s season-low marks in the power rankings, Portland will likely need to go on a big run of the winning variety to even get back to the rankings with which they started the season.
Here’s where the Trail Blazers sit in the tenth edition of the weekly power rankings after rounding out the week with two timely victories:
- John Schuhmann at NBA.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 22 this week, two spots better than last week...
Schuhmann has the Trail Blazers behind the Pacers at No. 21 and ahead of the Knicks at No. 23.
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The panel of voters at ESPN has the Trail Blazers at No. 21 this week, one spot better than last week...
The folks at ESPN have the Trail Blazers behind the Raptors at No. 20 and ahead of the Knicks at No. 22.
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Zach Harper at The Athletic has the Trail Blazers at No. 21 this week, two spots better than last week...
Harper has the Trail Blazers behind the Hornets at No. 20 and ahead of the Pacers at No. 22.
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Ben Pickman at Sports Illustrated has the Trail Blazers at No. 23 this week, two spots better than last week...
Pickman has the Trail Blazers behind the Pacers at No. 22 and ahead of the Spurs at No. 24.