{"id":701888,"date":"2026-04-06T19:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:13:17","slug":"nba-power-rankings-portland-trail-blazers-stand-pat-as-postseason-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701888\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Power Rankings: Portland Trail Blazers Stand Pat as Postseason Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With one week remaining in the regular season, the Portland Trail Blazers are trending upward. They\u2019ve gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and are tied for eighth place in the Western Conference. Plus, for the first time since 2021, the Blazers are guaranteed to get some postseason action \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blazersedge.com\/trail-blazers-news\/111019\/portland-trail-blazers-guaranteed-one-home-play-in-game-nba-playoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at least one home postseason game, at that!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, even with those positive developments, the Blazers are still stuck in neutral in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/power-rankings-2025-26-week-25\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA.com\u2019s weekly power rankings<\/a>. For the fourth consecutive week, NBA.com\u2019s John Schuhmann kept the Blazers at No. 19 in the league-wide rankings (which, honestly, is an understandable ceiling for Portland at this moment given the teams in front of them on the list).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While Schuhmann noted the Blazers\u2019 recent groove has come during a soft stretch in the schedule, he gave Portland credit for winning big against several lower opponents and for defeating the Los Angeles Clippers in a critical game last Tuesday. In his one takeaway about the team, Schuhmann highlighted Portland\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">The Blazers rank <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?DateFrom=03\/16\/2026&amp;DateTo=04\/05\/2026&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first<\/a> defensively (103.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) over the 8-2 stretch. They\u2019re not one of the league\u2019s 10 most improved defensive teams from last season, but this will be the first time in the last five years that they\u2019ve been better than average on either end of the floor. They\u2019ve allowed just 106.7 points per 100 possessions in 1,174 total minutes with Jrue Holiday on the floor alongside either Donovan Clingan or Robert Williams III.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For the season, the Blazers have the 13th-ranked defense in the NBA. They\u2019ll enter tonight\u2019s matchup against the Denver Nuggets with a 40-38 record. An upset win would mean Portland is guaranteed to finish with at least a .500 record for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Tipoff in Denver is scheduled for 6 p.m. Pacific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With one week remaining in the regular season, the Portland Trail Blazers are trending upward. They\u2019ve gone 8-2&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37787,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-701888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-blazers-analysis","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116359358641159190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}