Trail Blazers Skid to Nine-Game Losing Streak
This season, there are a few teams that are downright awful. Both the Detroit Pistons, and the Washington Wizards hold the worst record in the league at 9-49, following them comes the young Spurs who sit at 11-48, then finally there’s the Charlotte Hornets, and the Portland Trail Blazers who are 15-43, and 15-42 respectively. Portland took a tough loss at the hands of the Miami Heat last night in a 106-96 matchup. This loss makes it nine in a row for the Trail Blazers, as they’ll most likely be heading to the top of the NBA Draft Lottery this offseason. With about 25 games left to go and many tough opponents still left to compete against, the Trail Blazers could be in contention for the worst team in the NBA this season.
In the month of February, the Trail Blazers have been unsuccessful in winning a game. It all started on February 2nd when Portland suffered a 120-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Since then, they’ve lost to the Nuggets on two other occasions, while also falling short to the Pistons, Pelicans, Hornets, Heat, and the Minnesota Timberwolves twice. On February 8th against the Pistons, the game was tied at 120 and was headed into overtime. During the overtime period, Portland was only able to score two points, as they choked the win away 128-122. Their next couple of games look to be pretty difficult to capture a victory. Portland will play the Memphis Grizzlies twice, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Memphis has not had the season they’ve hoped for, but they have a stronger team that should be able to win against this young Trail Blazers squad. While Minnesota and Oklahoma City are the top two seeds in the Western Conference. It’s safe to say the next couple of weeks for the Portland Trail Blazers will be brutal.
Head coach Chauncey Billups needs to figure out how to get this young group of guys focused, and not be so in their head. Each loss in this streak has taken a toll, but Billups needs to rally the troops and prove to this team they are capable of being better than teams like the Pistons, Wizards, Hornets, and Spurs. This team ranks 26th in rebounds, 29th in points, and 30th in defensive rebounding, and assists. They also rank 28th in three-point percentage and dead last in field goal percentage. Even with the team being young, Chauncey needs to address the issues in the offseason, and hopefully, some of the potential talent on the roster will develop and bring promise to Rip City once again. How many games will the Trail Blazers lose on this streak?
