Sitting at 7-5 is hardly an enviable position.
Even worse, after an extended five game road trip that ended with a home game on the backend of a back-to-back, Portland is now back on the road for another back-to-back. This time both games are on the road, first against Sacramento and then against Phoenix.
In their last road game, Portland turned in a disappointing performance against Golden State and gave up a win they probably should have had, thus effectively canceling out their somewhat surprising win in Orlando a few nights prior.
It also pointed up to the difference between Portland and the teams they are looking up at.
The Celtics and Lakers habitually close out the games they are supposed to close out and put them in the W column. Their win totals grow regularly and when they lose it is a bit surprising. You seldom see the top teams of the league lose to the Memphis or Clipper type franchises.
Portland has the talent to be that type of team. What they do not have is the killer instinct. They often go into games and, as Brandon Roy has admitted in interviews, let teams get off to good starts and into great rhythms.
Portland needs to learn how to impose their will on opposing teams. They need more nights like they had against Chicago, where they spend the first five minutes establishing they are the better team and the next 43 minutes drilling that into the heads of their opponents. They need teams to know going in they will have to scrap and battle for every point and will need to go above and beyond to slow the Blazer offensive attack.
With that in mind, a quick look at the two games ahead is illuminating. Looking at them in reverse, the second game is currently the 2000-pound gorilla. Phoenix is a team the Brandon Roy-era Blazers have never defeated. Not in Phoenix. Not in Portland.
Furthermore, in the last couple of games Shaquille O'Neal has wrecked Joel Przybilla, scoring and rebounding seemingly at will. Steve Nash also does a number on Steve Blake, while Raja Bell often does an above-average job on Roy.
Synergize those things with the back-to-back, the fact it will be their seventh road game in their last eight outings, and suddenly you have a game that looks very, very imposing.
On the other hand, Phoenix and most of the Western Conference are looking vulnerable this year. San Antonio and Dallas are below .500. Phoenix has lost three home games in six tries. Houston is struggling with injuries and integrating Ron Artest into the offense. Utah is waiting for their star point guard to return. Denver made what some took as a panic trade.
As of the moment, at 7-5, Portland is in sixth place in the Western Conference. They are only three games away from first place. If they can get on a big run, they could actually be a legitimate, serious threat to make a move towards the third seed or perhaps even the second seed.
But to do that, they will have to win some games such as the Suns game. Phoenix is struggling to adjust to their new mind set and playing style, they have had some mild chirping at coach Terry Porter in the media, and are not yet the dominating team they will probably be by the end of the year.
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