Seeing those numbers gets me pumped!. If we can keep up that level of play (or even improve it), a deep playoff run isn't out of the question.
I wouldn't be surprised if we are even better by season's end. I could see us 3rd in offense and maybe 5th on defense.
Bleacher Report power rankings 1. MEM 2. SAS 3. GSW 4. Portland Trail Blazers Long winning streaks are all the rage in the Western Conference these days, but nobody is raging harder than the Portland Trail Blazers. Their 105-97 win in Charlotte was their ninth in a row, extending the longest streak the NBA has seen this season. That's not bad for a team that was a popular pick to fall off its previous pace of success. At 12-3, Portland is but one game behind last season's starting pace, which saw the Blazers bust out for 31 wins in their first 40 games before falling off somewhat during the second half of 2013-14. To be sure, Portland sports similar potential for regression this time around. Four of the recent victories have come in surprisingly close fashion against Philly, Boston and Charlotte (twice)—not exactly a murderers' row of competition. But, on the whole, the Blazers are better now than they were a year ago. Their offense is back to being one of the NBA's three best. Their defense now belongs among the top 10, and their bench, once an absolute black hole, can now hold its own, at the very least, with help from Chris Kaman and Steve Blake.
Two things about this annoy me. 1. Nobody seems to remember that Aldridge was out when we "fell off" in the second half of the season. That fact seems to slip their minds. 2. Four of our victories have come in "close fashion?" Beat the Hornets by 8. Beat the Sixers by 10. Beat the Celtics by 6. Beat the Bulls by 18. Beat the Pelicans by 9. Beat the Nets by 10. Beat the Nuggets by 17. So which four have come in surprisingly close fashion? Is 10 points close? 8 points? Are we supposed to blow these teams out by 20? In our last three games we started out a little cold and then crushed them in the 3rd and 4th quarters to win pretty comfortably. Not sure which four were "close."
Thought I'd bump his thread after checking the Hollinger Power Rankings and Playoff Odds this morning. After our 26-point win over NOP last night, the Blazers jumped all the way from 8th to 2nd in the Hollinger Power Rankings. That win greatly increased our MOV over the last 10 games and also increased our SOS over those same 10 games. That's quite a move up for just a single victory, but illustrates how heavily weighted the Hollinger Power Rankings are for recent performance - I call it the "what have you done for me lately" factor. I noticed a similar, but not quite as impressive jump by TOR from 6th to 2nd after Friday night's games. I also noticed how closely bunched teams 2 through 8 were at that time (separated by only 0.773 RAT), making such a huge jump possible. Toronto's big move was after a 10-point win over Detroit. Our 26-point win over NOP was much more impressive, as was ATL's 7-point road win over HOU, as both teams leaped frogged TOR, who dropped to 4th in spite of having Saturday off. The Blazers weekend road victories over SAS and NOP, combined with losses by SAS, MEM and LAC has more than doubled the RAT gap between 2nd and 8th places from .773 to 1.507, but that's still a very tight grouping. POR is creeping up on top ranked GSW, but the Warriors are still the class of the league, by far, according to Hollinger. Before Friday night's triple OT victory over SAS, the Blazers were ranked 9th in RAT and trailed the Warriors by 6.401 (110.772 to 104.371). We now only trail them by less than 4 RAT points (110.620 - 106.674 = 3.946). Still the gap between top ranked GSW and 2nd ranked POR is greater than the gap between 2nd ranked Portland and 13th ranked CLE. That's how impressive GSW has been so far this season - and especially recently. Moving on to Hollinger's Playoff Odds, the Blazers have also climbed up to 2nd in the West with 99.6% chance of making the post season. My favorite part of the Hollinger Playoff Odds is the Projected Record. It's based on simulating the remainder of the season 5000 times based on the current Power Rankings of your future opponents. Of course, it can't predict future injuries, trades, teams getting hot and cold, etc., but it's sort of a SOS of the future. Unlike the Hollinger Power Rankings, which are based on what's already happened, and strongly influenced by what's happened recently, the Hollinger Playoff Odds are a projection of future performance. So, according to Hollinger's current Playoff Odds, the Blazers will finish 2nd in the West at 57-25, finishing 7 games behind 64-win GSW and nudging 56-26 MEM for the second seed in the West by 1 game. If Hollinger's projections are accurate (they won't be as they change after every game, but it's still fun to think about), the 2nd seeded Blazers would face the 7th seeded, 49-win, defending champion Spurs in the first round. I know the Spurs are reeling right now, losing 4 in a row, but they've also had significant injuries and Pop has been resting his vets a lot (all five starters sat out last night's game in Dallas and they still gave DAL a scare). So, is this the year the Spurs FINALLY show their age, or are they still the potential 1st round opponent you fear the most? BNM
To me, you have to beat the best teams in the playoffs to advance. Whether you play them first or last. The order doesn't matter to me
I completely agree with this, my only addition would be that having home court advantage is huge in the playoffs. The West is tough from 1-8.
Thunder is the first round team I fear the most. When the Spurs fail, which rarely happens, it's usually in the first round. Don't get me wrong... They are my second most feared first round opponent, but Thunder will be "That team"
In addition to the rankings liking our last 10, we are now 8-4 vs. +.500 teams, good for 2nd best in the league. I'm pointing this out because when we played Chicago, Hubie Brown said something to the extent of "Portland's not real, look at their record against the +.500 teams". So, I guess this is my clumsy way to insert "Suck it, Hubie" into the conversation.
