{"id":480598,"date":"2026-02-20T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480598\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:17:07","slug":"after-week-in-the-sun-trail-blazers-ready-to-get-back-to-work-amid-playoff-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480598\/","title":{"rendered":"After week in the sun, Trail Blazers ready to get \u2018back to work\u2019 amid playoff push"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUALATIN \u2014 As they made their way back from sunny retreats to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta and Orlando and Los Angeles, the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> carried a unique mix of tranquility and purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good,\u201d acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> said of the team\u2019s weeklong All-Star break. \u201cA little sunshine. Neighbors. Barbecues. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the heavy lifting has only just begun.<\/p>\n

The team that entered the season chasing a playoff berth rather than lottery ping pong balls<\/a> 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\u2019t reached the postseason since 2021, when it suffered a first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets, and the Blazers are eyeing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team chemistry is there, everybody\u2019s happy for each other and we just want to finish these 26 games strong,\u201d All-Star forward Deni Avdija<\/a> said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a limit. I think we\u2019re a very talented team. We\u2019re well put together. We have the pieces. We just have to stay focused and be together and the playoffs (are) not far.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some positive trends heading in the Blazers\u2019 favor. <\/p>\n

For starters, after enduring a rash of injuries that threatened to sink the season<\/a>, the Blazers are finally growing healthy. Matisse Thybulle and Kris Murray, who haven\u2019t played since Oct. 29 and Jan. 5, respectively, were full participants<\/a> in a pair of post-All-Star break practices this week and have been listed as questionable for tonight\u2019s game against the Denver Nuggets. <\/p>\n

That leaves the team with just one injured regular, Shaedon Sharpe<\/a>. The Blazers\u2019 starting shooting guard is expected to be sidelined for the \u201cnear future,\u201d<\/a> according to Splitter.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is everybody\u2019s healthy,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cWe\u2019re healthy, we\u2019re ready to go, our spirits are up, we\u2019re in a good spot in the standings and our confidence is really good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another good thing: the schedule. The Blazers face the easiest schedule over the final seven weeks of the season, according to Tankathon<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The combined winning percentage of the Blazers\u2019 final 26 opponents is .450.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s 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 \u2014 All-Star James Harden and starting center Ivica Zubac \u2014 at the NBA trade deadline.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 especially with regard to defense \u2014 during a postseason chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the guys, we have the pieces, to be a really good defensive team,\u201d Blazers center Donovan Clingan<\/a> said. \u201cAnd in order to win games and make the playoffs, you\u2019ve got to guard, you\u2019ve got to play together. Getting everyone back healthy is going to help us do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They certainly could use the help.<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 offense has been sabotaged far too often by shaky long-range shooting and mind-numbing turnovers \u2014 they rank second-to-last in the league in three-point shooting (34.2%) and last in turnovers (16.6 per game). The Blazers\u2019 identity, built around defense, was supposed to make up for their offensive deficiencies. <\/p>\n

But that faded amid all the injuries. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s inconsistent defensive rebounding \u2014 the Blazers rank 24th in defensive rebounding percentage (68.5).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch the numbers, watch the games, we kind of (do) a decent job guarding the first shot,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cBut the rebounding is something that we\u2019ve really got to emphasize. We\u2019ve got to be better. Everybody. We\u2019ve just got to box out, go get it, (bring) better effort, better focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But there is hope, he added, that improved health will lead to improved defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to make excuses,\u201d Clingan said. \u201cObviously, the injuries hurt. But we\u2019re all NBA players. We all know what we\u2019ve got to do to win. So it\u2019s all going to fall into place. We\u2019re all going to step up our roles and we\u2019re going to finish these last 26 off strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a week of sunny retreats, the Blazers are eager to get back to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys are coming back healthy and we have all our pieces,\u201d Clingan said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUALATIN \u2014 As they made their way back from sunny retreats to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,1063,99],"class_list":["post-480598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}