TUALATIN — As they made their way back from sunny retreats to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta and Orlando and Los Angeles, the Portland Trail Blazers carried a unique mix of tranquility and purpose.

“It was good,” acting coach Tiago Splitter said of the team’s weeklong All-Star break. “A little sunshine. Neighbors. Barbecues.

“Now it’s back to work.”

Indeed, the heavy lifting has only just begun.

The team that entered the season chasing a playoff berth rather than lottery ping pong balls for the first time in years is within reach of its goal entering the stretch run. With seven weeks and 26 games remaining, the Blazers (27-29) sit in 10th place in the Western Conference standings, two games behind eighth-place Golden State (29-27). The play-in tournament is a virtual lock for a team that hasn’t reached the postseason since 2021, when it suffered a first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets, and the Blazers are eyeing more.

“The team chemistry is there, everybody’s happy for each other and we just want to finish these 26 games strong,” All-Star forward Deni Avdija said. “We don’t have a limit. I think we’re a very talented team. We’re well put together. We have the pieces. We just have to stay focused and be together and the playoffs (are) not far.”

There are some positive trends heading in the Blazers’ favor.

For starters, after enduring a rash of injuries that threatened to sink the season, the Blazers are finally growing healthy. Matisse Thybulle and Kris Murray, who haven’t played since Oct. 29 and Jan. 5, respectively, were full participants in a pair of post-All-Star break practices this week and have been listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Denver Nuggets.

That leaves the team with just one injured regular, Shaedon Sharpe. The Blazers’ starting shooting guard is expected to be sidelined for the “near future,” according to Splitter.

Even so, the team that played two months without a natural point guard and even played a couple games without a traditional center, is as healthy as its been all season.

“The most important thing is everybody’s healthy,” Avdija said. “We’re healthy, we’re ready to go, our spirits are up, we’re in a good spot in the standings and our confidence is really good right now.”

Another good thing: the schedule. The Blazers face the easiest schedule over the final seven weeks of the season, according to Tankathon, offering a pristine path to the play-in tournament. The immediate slate is challenging, featuring home games against the Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves and road games at the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, among others, over the next two weeks. But the closing stretch is mostly cozy, with matchups against lottery-chasing teams like the Indiana Pacers (twice), Brooklyn Nets (twice), New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings.

The combined winning percentage of the Blazers’ final 26 opponents is .450.

What’s more, the teams ahead of the Blazers in the standings appear vulnerable. The Warriors have lost All-Star Jimmy Butler to a season-ending injury and Stephen Curry, who has missed the last five games with right knee soreness, is expected to be sidelined at least 10 more days. Meanwhile, the ninth-place Los Angeles Clippers (27-28) have won six of their last 10, but they also moved two key players — All-Star James Harden and starting center Ivica Zubac — at the NBA trade deadline.

On top of it all, the Blazers have been here before (sort of). After a rough start to the 2024-25 season, the team excelled in the second half, closing with a 23-18 record to inch within three games of the play-in tournament. The run offered a taste of what to expect — especially with regard to defense — during a postseason chase.

“We have the guys, we have the pieces, to be a really good defensive team,” Blazers center Donovan Clingan said. “And in order to win games and make the playoffs, you’ve got to guard, you’ve got to play together. Getting everyone back healthy is going to help us do that.”

They certainly could use the help.

The Blazers’ offense has been sabotaged far too often by shaky long-range shooting and mind-numbing turnovers — they rank second-to-last in the league in three-point shooting (34.2%) and last in turnovers (16.6 per game). The Blazers’ identity, built around defense, was supposed to make up for their offensive deficiencies.

But that faded amid all the injuries.

Portland enters the stretch run ranked 19th in the NBA in defensive rating (115.5), 23rd in points allowed (118.3 per game) and 21st in field goal defense (47.5%). One of the biggest bugaboos, Splitter says, is his team’s inconsistent defensive rebounding — the Blazers rank 24th in defensive rebounding percentage (68.5).

“When you watch the numbers, watch the games, we kind of (do) a decent job guarding the first shot,” Splitter said. “But the rebounding is something that we’ve really got to emphasize. We’ve got to be better. Everybody. We’ve just got to box out, go get it, (bring) better effort, better focus.”

There are other issues, Clingan said, which include navigating ball screens, running shooters off the line and even good old fashioned one-on-one play.

But there is hope, he added, that improved health will lead to improved defense.

“I don’t want to make excuses,” Clingan said. “Obviously, the injuries hurt. But we’re all NBA players. We all know what we’ve got to do to win. So it’s all going to fall into place. We’re all going to step up our roles and we’re going to finish these last 26 off strong.”

After a week of sunny retreats, the Blazers are eager to get back to work.

“Guys are coming back healthy and we have all our pieces,” Clingan said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”