The Portland Trail Blazers (4-1) continue to rise in the NBA.com league-wide power rankings in the early part of the season. After Portland moved from No. 19 to No. 15 last week, the Blazers leaped into the No. 9 spot on Monday.
The rankings, written by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, rewarded the Blazers for a 2-1 week that included road wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz and a lone loss coming against the undefeated Memphis Grizzlies.
In his takeaways about Portland this week, Schuhmann highlighted
how the Blazers had been playing well with the Damian Lillard/Ja Morant combination on the court, but they’ve played even better so far with just one or the other in the game.
Ja Morant is going to be out at least a month after suffering a hamstring injury on Thursday, and Scoot Henderson was in the starting lineup when the Blazers won in Utah over the weekend. They were good (plus-5.2 per 100 possessions) in 69 minutes with Morant and Lillard on the floor together, but have been terrific (plus-25.2 per 100) in 110 minutes with one on the floor without the other.
Schuhmann also noted the Blazers’ great ability to get to the free throw line, an unsurprising trait for a Deni Avdija-led team.
The Blazers and Lakers combined to score more than 130 points per 100 possessions in Portland’s win on Tuesday. L.A. has led the league in free throw differential in each of the last four seasons, but the Blazers had the edge last week and attempted 40 more free throws than their opponents over their last three games. Deni Avdija is still getting to the line a ton and Lillard’s free throw rate (43 attempts per 100 shots from the field) would be the second-highest of his career.
The schedule for the Blazers isn’t easy this week. Portland has road matchups against the Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns and Lakers, before returning home to face the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. If they perform well through that gauntlet, they’ll probably be in line for more upward movement come next week’s power rankings.
Portland tips off against the Nuggets at 6 p.m. PST on Monday.
