Portland faces a brutal final stretch. Tough matchups against top teams will determine their playoff seeding and path to contention.
The Portland Trail Blazers have just four games left in the regular season, and despite already clinching a spot in the postseason through the Play-In Tournament, these next four games are going to dictate everything the rest of the way.
Where exactly the Blazers finish in that No. 8 through No. 10 range in the Western Conference will have a significant impact not only on the team’s path to making the true playoffs, in terms of the teams they will have to face, but also the logistical path in terms of where those games will be played and how many contests they will have to win to actually get there.
Unfortunately for Portland, these final four games are going to be extremely difficult. Luckily, the last game of the season against the Sacramento Kings should be a walk in the park. The Kings are one of the worst teams in the NBA and will absolutely have no desire to win that game, given it is their final chance to maintain draft lottery positioning.
But the three games before that, over a five-day stretch, are against the Denver Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs and the LA Clippers. Denver and San Antonio are two of the best teams in the league. You could argue they are two of the four best teams in the entire NBA. Those are going to be tough contests because both teams still have a lot to play for and will be rolling out their best.
The Clippers game, while not against a team in that same tier, comes against a group that has played like one for the last several months. It’s also the team Portland is directly competing with for the No. 8 seed, which makes that contest absolutely massive.
So these final four games are going to be a gauntlet. There is a real chance the Blazers go 1-3 and are unable to secure the eighth seed, especially given that the Clippers have five games left against the Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, the Blazers, and Golden State Warriors. Outside of the Thunder game, and of course the Blazers game given the consequences, the other three should be cakewalks.
As things stand today, the Blazers are a half-game above the Clippers for the eighth seed. But if the outcomes for both teams go the way most would expect, the Clippers will finish with the eighth seed by roughly a game. That would make Portland’s path to the playoffs much harder.
At some point, though, if the Blazers want to prove they are a legitimate playoff team that deserves a spot as the No. 7 or No. 8 seed and believes it can give the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs a real run for its money in the first round, this is the time. You have to win big games down the stretch of the regular season, and that is exactly what is in front of Portland.