Celtics, Hornets Games Could Kill Blazers' Postseason Hopes

Sporting a 34-43 record in the deep and talented Western Conference, one would perhaps not expect to still find the Portland Trail Blazers in the thick of the postseason race. But here they remain.

Portland is currently in the thick of a push for the final two play-in tournament seeds in the West, along with the 38-39 Dallas Mavericks (currently the conference's No. 9 seed), the 36-40 Sacramento Kings (the No. 10 seed), and the 35-41 Phoenix Suns (the No. 11 seed).

At present, the Trail Blazers occupy the West's No. 12 seed, 1.5 games clear of the 32-44 San Antonio Spurs, who are somehow still in the hunt despite having long ago shut down All-Stars Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox.

Essentially, to gatecrash the bottom of the play-in tournament group, Portland likely has to hope it can go 4-1 across its last five contests of the 2024-25 regular season, as it already trails Sacramento by 2.5 games.

On Friday night, the Trail Blazers, Kings and Suns will all be in action. What happens in their games will help determine their postseason fates.

In a fresh piece, Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian helpfully lays out all the various, complicated scenarios that could stem from the three games tonight.

As Fentress notes, if Portland falls to the 34-42 Chicago Bulls (who've already locked up a play-in seed in the East) and the Kings beat the tanking Charlotte Hornets, the Trail Blazers would fall to a 34-43 record and Sacramento would improve to 37-40, putting the Kings 3.5 games ahead of Portland with four contests left for the Trail Blazers.

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Sacramento and Phoenix each have six games left on their schedules this season.

The Suns are playing the 56-20 Boston Celtics in Boston, where Boston has weirdly been more vulnerable this season, and the Kings will be in Charlotte to take on the 19-57 Hornets. Sacramento has dropped seven of its last nine contests, including a 116-111 stinker against the 17-60 Washington Wizards on Wednesday, so it is looking particularly vulnerable.

The Bulls will be challenging for Portland. They have won six of nine, and 14 of their last 15 losses came against teams with winning records.

A Trail Blazers victory and a Sacramento defeat, however, would put Portland a scant 1.5 games behind the Kings with four games remaining to catch up. The Trail Blazers have two very winnable games left on their schedule after Chicago, with a home matchup against the Spurs on Sunday and a Wednesday clash in Utah against the 16-61 Jazz.

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The Suns and Kings have better opponents on their year-ending schedules than Portland does. The Trail Blazers will need to best the closing records of both (assuming Dallas stays at No. 9), significantly, if they want to make the play-in.

The Trail Blazers have been rolling of late, highlighted by the deft play of small forward Deni Avdija and shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe.

Avdija recently notched his 1,000th career assist.