Portland Trail Blazers: Looking at the West playoff contenders in a different light
San Antonio Spurs
- Record: 29–38, 2.0 games back of eight, 1.5 games out of ninth.
- Future Opponents: Utah, New Orleans, Houston, and Utah.
- Opponents combined winning percentage: .579
- Opponents combined bubble winning percentage: .500
- Pressure factor: 5. Every team the Spurs play has importance to their opponents and twice as much when they face New Orleans.
- Schedule difficulty x intensity: 7.89
San Antonio has their backs against the wall. Utah is a tough, physical team to play against in a non-pressure situation. Then the Spurs have to come back and play an almost elimination game against New Orleans. If they survive, there is still Houston and Utah again to finish out the season.
Phoenix Suns
- Record: 30–39, 2.0 games back of eight, 1.5 games out of ninth.
- Future Opponents: Miami, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, and Utah.
- Opponents combined winning percentage: .607
- Opponents combined bubble winning percentage: .500
- Pressure factor: 3. Their first three opponents have something on the line, but the last doesn’t.
- Schedule difficulty x intensity: 4.82
Phoenix came into the bubble as a huge postseason longshot. All they’ve done so far is makeup four games on Memphis with four straight wins. Their next three games will be challenging, but if they can win two of three, it will but them in a fantastic position. Dallas locked down the West’s seventh seed. It’s a good bet they don’t give their top player many minutes in their finale’.
Next: Page 4 – Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis
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