On Monday evening, the Portland Trail Blazers suffered one of their most frustrating losses of the season with a road defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. The Blazers led this one by 16 points at one point in the fourth quarter, but ultimately ended up folding down the stretch and losing in overtime by a score of 137-132, despite knocking down a franchise record of 25 three-pointers in the game.
With a win, the Blazers would have slid into the eighth seed in a tightening Western Conference playoff race, meaning they would need to win just one play-in game in order to secure a first-round matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. Instead, the Blazers now remain in ninth, a half-game behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the coveted number eight seed.
Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors are well behind the rest of the pack at number ten, and will have to win two straight road elimination games in the play-in tournament in order to make it to the big dance.
The good news for the Blazers is that they still have another matchup with the Clippers remaining this year, which will be huge in deciding who ends up getting the number eight seed. Whoever does end up in that spot will more than likely take on the Phoenix Suns on the road in the first play-in game, and if they lose that one, they’ll still have another chance to make it to the playoffs against the winner of the nine vs ten matchup.
Up next for the Blazers is a tough road game against the Spurs on Wednesday evening at 9:30 pm ET from San Antonio.
On Monday evening, the Portland Trail Blazers suffered one of their most frustrating losses of the season with a road defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. The Blazers led this one by 16 points at one point in the fourth quarter, but ultimately ended up folding down the stretch and losing in overtime by a score of 137-132, despite knocking down a franchise record of 25 three-pointers in the game.