Trail Blazers Suffer Third Straight Heartbreaking Loss
Again, the Trail Blazers held a late lead and lost the game in dramatic fashion
This has to be the low point of the season… right?
Last night’s loss to the Indiana Pacers makes it a third straight road loss where Portland held a significant lead in the second half. This one hurts even worse than the previous two: the Trail Blazers already blew out the Pacers once this season and threatened to do so again in the first half. In the end, similar to the Memphis Grizzlies game, Portland’s offense hit a dry spell and the much-maligned defense could not get a stop.
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The loss drops Portland to a less-than-stellar 12-13 record. And unfortunately, it might not get better soon. A trip to L.A. to face the Clippers waits tomorrow night – A team that’s easily handled the Blazers twice already this season. Games against Oklahoma City and Golden State (with the Denver Nuggets sandwiched in the middle) round out a brutal week. It’s very likely their record will get worse before it gets better.
On top of that, December 15th will mark a day when many trade restrictions around the league vanish, which means that many more moves become viable. Trade rumors will swirl around a Trail Blazers’ roster that has so many different types of assets.
Light at the end of the tunnel
However, it’s still not time to panic. Remember, Portland was 10-15 at this point last season, and would soon drop to 11-20. Terry Stotts led teams regularly get better as the season goes on. Not only did Portland surge to the second round of the playoffs after such a poor start, but in 2014-2015, Portland became a dark horse NBA title contender before the Wes Matthews injury.
Furthermore, the Trail Blazers are in no danger of missing the playoffs. There are clearly eight teams in the Western Conference that are better than the rest. The Los Angeles Lakers might have been a fun story to start the year, but they aren’t ready for the playoffs yet. Obviously, Portland will not want to limp into the playoffs as an eight seed just to receive a battering by the Warriors. But it’s still calming to know that they have time to figure out their defense without missing the playoffs.
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