NBA: Portland Season Recap (So Far)

The Portland Trail Blazers were picked to finish sixth in the Western Conference in our 2017-18 Regular Season Projections, as we predicted they would finish the season with a 45-37 record and would face the Houston Rockets in the opening round of the playoffs. No one saw the Blazers having this good of a year. They have exploded to 44 wins with still 10 games left in the season. Portland recently had a 13-game winning streak which included victories over some of the best teams in the league: the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, Miami Heat, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

All of those teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. Although they had their winning streak snapped, 115-111, by the Rockets, the Blazers have seriously looked like a team that can cause some trouble in the playoffs. It'd be foolish to think they could beat the Warriors or Rockets in a seven-game series (barring any major injuries), but they could test either one of those franchises. It's important to note that in those 13 wins, Damian Lillard was the leading scorer for either team in seven of them. He has been unconscious for much of the season, and kicked it up into another gear following the All-Star break.

Lillard is averaging 27.3 points, 6.5 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game over his last 10 games and seems to be trying to take his team to another level. Although they've been a regular in the postseason for the last few years, this team has a different feel about them. Lillard's game has matured, as has his backcourt teammate, C.J. McCollum. He is averaging 21.6 points and 3.2 assists per game this year. A third player that is averaging double digit points is Jusuf Nurkic, who is putting up 14.2 points and a 18.3 PER, which is good for second on the team. Portland is much improved from last season, and are having much more success than we projected!

Photo Credit: NBA.com.