NBA Power Rankings Roundup: Blazers vs. Clippers Will Shake Things Up

The Portland Trail Blazers are at .500 going into their final six games of the season.

The Blazers won three of four games this week at home, and that should be viewed as an accomplishment, but power rankings across the internet did not agree.

NBA.com, John Schuhmann (19, no change)

"The Blazers went 3-1 on a four-game homestand in which all four opponents were in the bottom 10 in the league. They’re back at .500, 1 1/2 games behind the eighth-place Clippers and 1 1/2 games ahead of the 10th-place Warriors," Schuhmann wrote.

The Athletic, Law Murray (19, no change)

"Here’s the reality of the NBA: A lot of people love looking at strength of schedule and doing a lot of “analysis” based on that. But you have to still play these teams. The Trail Blazers had as cupcake a schedule as you could ask for last week. They went 3-1. On paper, that’s a good week," Murray wrote.

Clutch Points, Brett Siegel (20, down 1)

"Although the Portland Trail Blazers continue to hover around .500 and are ahead of the Warriors for the 9-seed, they are behind them in the NBA power rankings because of inconsistencies outside of Deni Avdija," Siegel wrote.

"Portland can struggle to score at times, which is why they lean on their veterans like Jerami Grant. However, Grant recently suffered a calf strain and could possibly miss the rest of the season. Without Grant, Portland has no chance of making it out of the play-in tournament."

Portland Trail Blazers Interim Head Coach Tiago Splitter calls out a play. | Soobum Im-Imagn Images

Our Take

The Blazers are at .500, and that's all fine and dandy, but that doesn't mean that they have accomplished anything yet. The team has goals higher than where they currently are, and time is inching closer to when we will figure out exactly where the team will be.

They still have these final six regular season games that will determine whether they are eighth or ninth in the Western Conference standings going into the play-in tournament. Placing eighth will be better for them because they will have two chances to clinch a playoff berth as opposed to one. If they lose their first game against the Phoenix Suns, they will host the Los Angeles Clippers.

Two of these final six games for the Blazers come against the Clippers, so it will give them a good chance to familiarize themselves with the team they need to directly beat in order to get to the postseason.

That will be a great litmus test for the Blazers to see where they are as they try to get to the playoffs. If they can beat the Clippers once or twice, they should deserve the eighth seed and a higher spot in the power rankings.