I don’t want to take anything away from the Portland Trailblazers, who are currently on a 13 game winning streak and have definitely been playing exceptionally, but the hater inside of me couldn’t resist writing this article. What I’ve concluded from my very basic research of the Blazers’ schedule the last 13 games and the standings of their opponents during that stretch is that Portland has not been playing difficult opponents.

The Figures

1. The aggregate win-loss record of their opponents during the streak is 174-216, for a sub-par winning percentage of 44.6%.
2. There are 30 teams in the National Basketball Association. If you rank them 1-30, with 30 being the worst, the average rank of team’s the Blazers have played the last 13 games is 18.2.
3. This includes games against 4 out of the worst 5 teams in the league: Seattle (26), Memphis (28), Miami (29) and Minnesota (30). These teams have a combined win-loss record 29-90.
4. During this stretch, they’ve only played 1 out of the top 8 teams in the entire league (New Orleans). This means they haven’t played Boston, Detroit, San Antonio, Phoenix, Orlando, the Los Angeles Lakers or Dallas during the winning streak.
5. Out of the 13 games, only 3 of them were on the road. Their last 6 games have all been at home.

I’ll leave interpretation up to the rest of you, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Edit Dec 31, 2007
On New Years Eve, the Utah Jazz finally defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, ending their 13 game winning streak. This was due in large part to the 19 points and 9 boards from Carlos Boozer & the 18 points and 8 assists from Deron Williams. The Jazz certainly came ready play, hoping to avoid a third consecutive loss to the Blazers (during the Blazers’ streak, they had defeated the Jazz twice).

To hoops,
Farid