The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Houston Rockets 140-116 on Friday night. It was Portland’s first double-digit loss of the season. It was also the first time the Blazers had been thoroughly handled
by an opponent, nearly start to finish. In the wake of that defeat, more than one Trail Blazers fan is expressing consternation and worry, evidenced by this submission to the Blazer’s Edge Mailbag.
Dave,
I don’t understand why the Blazers are falling apart after a good start. 4 losses in 6 games now. It feels like the defense has slipped and something I can’t put my finger on has changed. What’s your read? Were the early wins a mirage?
Ron
You’re not the only one to mention the defense. We’ll talk about that more in depth in the coming week. But before we even get there, let’s hold on a minute.
4 losses in 6 games is a 2-4 record. That’s one win away from .500, which is where the Blazers have been all season. They remain there currently with a 6-6 overall record. At this point, nothing has seriously fallen apart yet. This is just part of their make-up.
As we alluded to in the intro paragraph, the Blazers play close games. They’ve had two double-digit wins and a single double-digit loss in 12 outings. That means 9 of their 12 games have been decided by 9 points or less. Many have been within two possessions, close down to the wire.
Portland has had one of the toughest opening schedules of any NBA team. They’ve been outmatched, routinely, by opponents on paper. Looking forward from preseason, nearly everybody would have rejoiced to have them 6-6 after their first dozen games.
Playing close games isn’t a bug in their style of play; it’s a feature. They haven’t succeeded by being more talented than the opponent, overwhelming them with precision offense, or even stopping them that well defensively. It’s been an all-out blitz, a hard-rebounding, turnover-forcing, fast-paced whirlwind, daring the opposition to keep it up for 48 minutes. Realistically, even the Blazers themselves haven’t managed that. But they’ve done enough to keep games close down the stretch regardless of quality of opponent, giving themselves a chance to win 11 of the 12 games they’ve played.
When the margin is that thin, though, you’re going to win some and lose some. Blind odds would say about half, right? That’s exactly what the Blazers have done.
In the process we’ve seen a couple spectacular wins against Oklahoma City and Denver, some head-scratching losses (including to a toothless Lakers team), and a blowout to the Rockets. The latter are hard to take, but the former sure feel good, right? All in all, we should probably take it. It could be a lot worse.
Think of it this way. Back in 2023-24–just two seasons ago–the Blazers lost three blowout games by a combined 165 points…some of the worst defeats by margin in franchise history. Even with the Houston loss, the total combined margin in all of Portland’s defeats this season has totaled 51. (Before last night that number was just 27, but what can you do?)
51 points in all the losses so far leaves the Blazers…*checks calculator* 114 short of those three back in ‘23-’24. Let’s see how long it takes them to make up that difference–how many losses it takes in 2025-26 to equal their three worst ones back then–before getting too worked up about how badly the season is going. Playing .500 ball–or even a little under, if it comes to that–isn’t ideal. But this is a, “There but for the grace of God go I…again!” situation. If the Blazers aren’t world beaters (or even Rockets-beaters) yet, at least they’ve made some progress.
Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as possible!
