2. Trail ends for Blazers
Over the course of the last few months, the Portland Trail Blazers have been unstoppable. Not only do they boast one of the NBA’s best home records, but before their game against the Rockets, the Blazers were on a 13-game winning streak. The streak saw Damian Lillard launch himself into the MVP conversation and the Blazers shoot themselves up the Western Conference standings. With less than 15 games remaining in the season, Portland has a three-game advantage over the Thunder in the race for the three seed.
While the Blazers always hung around the middle of the pack in the West, they elevated their game a few months ago and became legitimate contenders. Lillard and the rest of the Portland squad are out for blood, hungry for people to take them seriously and view them as contenders. They had the chance to make some serious noise by extending their streak to 14 games and defeating the NBA’s best team earlier in the week, but came up just short.
Even though the Blazers led most of the game, a late Rockets push stopped the win streak. James Harden’s MVP-esque performance stopped any hopes of extending the win streak dead in its path. However, with one of the NBA’s toughest schedules down the stretch, it’s no surprise Portland dropped a game. To the league’s best team nonetheless. With decisive games against the Pelicans, Thunder, Celtics and Rockets still lingering, there is a lot still on the table to play for in Portland.