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生肉：Despite notching just one more win since we last checked in, the Portland Trail Blazers have taken a huge leap in this week’s rankings. That win, coming in a close game against the third-in-the-West Grizzlies in Memphis punctuated a four-game win streak for Portland that has come as a pleasant surprise after the Trail Blazers traded their second and third leading scorers ahead of the deadline. The current win streak marks the first time since mid-November and just the second time on the season that the Trail Blazers have won four straight games. 

Portland’s momentum will be challenged coming out of the All-Star break with a six-game stretch against teams currently over .500 kicking off against the Warriors on Thursday. If the Trail Blazers can retain any semblance of their pre-break success through that stretch of games, they will be in a good position to continue that run through the end of the season with 14 of their last 17 games coming against teams currently below .500.

After making splashes at the trade deadline, it was a quiet All-star weekend for Portland with no current players participating in the festivities other than the recognition of Damian Lillard’s 75th Anniversary Team honors. Despite playing just one game this past week, there have been plenty of positives since the deadline to highlight in this week’s power rankings.

Post-Deadline Highlights:

Much in the Clutch: After ranking near the bottom in clutch time net rating for much of the year, the Trail Blazers have scrapped their way to a top-10 clutch net rating (10.2) on the season thanks in most part to an improvement in defensive rating in clutch time. Portland has the sixth-best defensive rating (100.0) in clutch minutes and is playing with the second-highest pace (106.4) in the last five minutes of close games.

Anfernee Simons, Most Improved: Anfernee Simons is averaging 30.3 points, 6.3 assists, and 5.8 made threes on 51.1% FG and 46.9% 3-PT over Portland’s four-game win streak. He’s made the most threes of anyone in the league over the last four games and is seventh in scoring over that span. Simons has continued to prove that he can run the offense and score at a high clip when given the opportunity. If he can continue to play anywhere near this level for the remainder of the season, Simons has a serious case for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award despite not having a consistent position in the starting lineup until over 30 games into the season.

Nurk’s Work: Jusuf Nurkić recorded a season-high and one point shy of his career-high 32 points in a victory over the Grizzlies on Wednesday. Nurkić recorded his 30th double-double of the season against the Bucks in the game before that with 23 points and 16 rebounds. His 30 double-doubles are tied with Jarrett Allen for eighth most in the league and just six shy of a career high for Nurkić (36 double-doubles) set in the 2018-19 season.

Hart Playing With Heart: Josh Hart’s 72 points over his first three games with Portland mark the second-highest three-game scoring stretch of Hart’s career behind only the last three games of his rookie campaign with the Lakers (75 points). Coach Billups and some of Hart’s teammates have praised his court awareness and basketball IQ from day one, saying that he “just knows where to be on the court.”

A Contract For The Rook: Portland is converting undrafted rookie forward Trendon Watford’s two-way deal to a standard NBA contract. Watford, the Alabama High School Athletic Association's all-time career rebounds leader who spent two years at LSU, recorded nine points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and a steal in 23 minutes against the Bucks last week and has been touted as a player who “just does winning things” by coach Chauncey Billups. Portland waived G Dennis Smith Jr., who was set to miss substantial time with an elbow injury, creating an opening on the 15-man roster for Watford.

A win over a top team in the West and some time to think over the All-Star break proved to be enough to solidify Portland’s recent run as more than a fluke to the national media, as the Trail Blazers make a big jump up in this week’s power rankings. These next six games, all coming against opponents over .500, will be pivotal in defining a Portland season that has been uncharacteristically hard to define. If the Trail Blazers can have any success over these next six games, they will have a good chance to finish the season at or above .500, given they can continue to streak through the league’s second-easiest remaining strength of schedule. Coming in as high as No. 18 and as low as No. 22, here’s where the Trail Blazers sit in the 19th edition of the weekly power rankings, riding the league’s third-longest win streak.

• John Schuhmann at NBA.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 22 this week, two spots better than last week...

The Blazers have won four straight games for the first time since before Thanksgiving, and the last two wins (at Milwaukee and Memphis) were much more impressive than the first two (vs. the Lakers and Knicks). Anfernee Simons has averaged 30.3 points on 51% shooting over the winning streak, Jusuf Nurkic scored a season-high 32 points against the Grizzlies on Wednesday, and Josh Hart’s three games with the Blazers (72 total points) have been the second highest-scoring stretch of his career, topped only by the last three games of his rookie season in L.A. (75 total). Justise Winslow, meanwhile, has made more shots from outside the paint in six games with the Blazers (9-for-28) than he did in 37 games with the Clippers (7-for-35).

The Blazers’ post-break schedule is front-loaded, with their next six games against teams that currently have winning records. After that, 14 of their final 17 are against teams currently below .500. And maybe that doesn’t matter much, because with those two wins last week, they have almost as many victories over the good teams (12-21) as they do against the sub-.500 group (13-13).

Three numbers to know…

1. The Blazers have seen the league’s biggest jump in assist percentage (AST/FGM), from 51.5% (30th) last season to 58.7% (21st) this season. They’ve also seen the league’s second biggest jump in ball movement (+39 passes per 24 minutes of possession) and its second biggest jump in player movement (+0.4 miles traveled per 24 minutes of possessions).

2. The Blazers are the only team that ranks in the bottom five in both opponent 2-point percentage (54.7%, 28th) and opponent 3-point percentage (37.2%, 29th).

3. Simons has a usage rate of 23.9%, up from 18.0% last season. That’s the fourth biggest jump (behind only those of Ricky Rubio, Reggie Jackson and Desmond Bane) among 280 players who’ve played at least 500 minutes in each of the last two seasons. Four of his five highest single-game usage rates have come in February.

Schuhmann has the Trail Blazers behind the Wizards at No. 21 and ahead of the Pelicans at No. 23.

• The panel of voters at ESPN has the Trail Blazers at No. 21 this week, three spots better than last week...

Despite trading CJ McCollum and Norman Powell at the deadline, the Blazers enter the break on a four-game winning streak. Anfernee Simons is showing that he can carry the scoring load with Damian Lillard out. Simons has scored 30 points or more in three straight games. Give Chauncey Billups credit for holding things together as the Blazers beat the Lakers, Knicks, Bucks and Grizzlies during their winning streak.

The folks at ESPN have the Trail Blazers behind the Wizards at No. 20 and ahead of the Spurs at No. 22.

• Zach Harper at The Athletic has the Trail Blazers at No. 20 this week, six spots better than last week...

Takeaway: So far, the Portland Trail Blazers are refusing to go away after sending out a bunch of good, veteran players. Anfernee Simons has been tremendous in the absence of Damian Lillard, and Blazers fans are justifiably excited about how good he’s been and maybe he good he can become when they re-sign him to an offer sheet this summer. They’re going to need this team to be better throughout games consistently though, and it’s hard to tell just how much we should expect that to happen with this group. These numbers are tough to parse out simply because of the massive roster changes and Lillard not being on the court. While everything was looking pretty rough, we can at least just focus on the turnaround in clutch games. They’ve won nine of 16 clutch games since we last checked in at Week 9, and they’re now one of the best clutch teams in the league. Hopefully that holds true the rest of the way.

Harper has the Trail Blazers behind the Lakers at No. 19 and ahead of the Pelicans at No. 21.

• Colin Ward-Henninger at CBS Sports has the Trail Blazers at No. 18 this week, two spots better than last week...

Isn't basketball a funny thing? The Blazers go into full tank mode by trading CJ McCollum and Norman Powell, lose Nassir Little for the season with a shoulder injury, and then somehow rattle off four straight wins, including road victories over the Bucks and Grizzlies to close out the week. Go figure. Anfernee Simons looks ready to take McCollum's place as Portland's No. 2 scoring option when Lillard is healthy, averaging 30.3 points and 6.7 assists this week on scorching 18-for-38 3-point shooting, and Josh Hart has looked great since coming over from New Orleans, putting up 24 points per game on 52 percent 3-point shooting.

Ward-Henninger has the Trail Blazers behind the Nets at No. 17 and ahead of the Lakers at No. 19.

熟肉：作者：[美]德斯蒙德·约翰逊

发布日期：2022年2月22日

尽管自从我们上次登记以来只取得了一场胜利，波特兰开拓者队在本周的排名中取得了巨大的飞跃。这场胜利是在孟菲斯迎战西部灰熊队第三名的一场势均力敌的比赛中取得的，这标志着波特兰队取得了四连胜，这是一个惊喜，因为开拓者队在最后期限前交易了他们的第二名和第三名得分手。目前的连胜标志着开拓者队自11月中旬以来的第一次，也是本赛季第二次连续四场获胜。

波特兰队的势头将在全明星赛之后受到挑战，在周四对阵勇士队的比赛中，他们将连续六场对阵目前超过0.500的球队。如果开拓者队能在这段时间内保持他们在全明星赛前的成功，他们将处于一个很好的位置，在赛季结束后继续保持这种状态，在过去17场比赛中，有14场比赛将对阵目前低于0.500的球队。在交易截止日期前大放异彩之后，对于波特兰来说，这是一个安静的全明星周末，除了表彰达米安·利拉德75周年球队荣誉之外，没有其他球员参加庆祝活动。

尽管上周只打了一场比赛，但自本周实力排名截止日期以来，已经出现了很多积极因素。

交易截止日后的亮点：

关键时刻：在一年的大部分时间里，开拓者队在关键时刻的净得分都接近垫底，但由于关键时刻防守得分的提高，开拓者队在本赛季的关键时刻的净得分（10.2）上升到了前十名。波特兰开拓者队在关键时刻的防守效率排名第六（100.0），而在近期比赛中最后五分钟中的节奏则排名第二高（106.4）。

安芬尼·西蒙斯，进步神速：安芬尼·西蒙斯场均30.3分，6.3助攻，5.8分，命中率51.1%，命中率46.9%。在过去的四场比赛中，他是联盟中三分得分最多的球员之一，在这段时间里得分第七。西蒙斯继续证明，如果有机会的话，他可以掌控进攻，并以很高的速度得分。如果西蒙斯能在本赛季余下的时间里继续打接近这个水平的比赛，那么他就有理由获得NBA最佳进步球员奖，尽管在本赛季的30多场比赛之前，他在并没有坐稳首发阵容。

努尔基奇的工作：在周三战胜灰熊的比赛中，尤素福·努尔基奇创下了赛季新高，比职业生涯最高的32分少了一分。在此之前，努尔基奇在对阵雄鹿队的比赛中以23分16个篮板的成绩实现了本赛季的第30个双双。他的30次双双战绩与贾勒特·艾伦并列联盟第八，距离2018-19赛季努尔基奇创下的职业生涯新高（36次双双）仅差6次。

哈特在用Heart打球：乔希·哈特在与波特兰队的前三场比赛中得到72分，这是哈特职业生涯中得分第二高的三场比赛，仅次于他与湖人队的新秀赛季的最后三场比赛（75分）。教练比卢普斯和哈特的一些队友从第一天起就赞扬了他的球场意识和篮球智商，说他“只知道在球场上该去哪里”

新秀合同：波特兰正在将未经选秀的新秀前锋特伦登·沃特福德的双向合同转换为标准的NBA合同。沃特福德是阿拉巴马州高中体育协会职业生涯篮板冠军，他在路易斯安那州立大学待了两年，上周对阵雄鹿队时，他在23分钟内取得了9分、10个篮板、5次助攻和一次抢断，教练昌西·比卢普斯（Chauncey Billups）将他盛赞为一名“只做赢家”的球员。波特兰放弃了小丹尼斯·史密斯，他因肘部受伤而错过了很长一段时间，为沃特福德的15人名单创造了一个空缺。

一场对西部顶级球队的胜利，以及一段时间对全明星赛的思考，足以巩固波特兰队最近的表现，这对国家媒体来说不仅仅是一个侥幸，因为开拓者队在本周的实力排名中有了大幅提升。

接下来的六场比赛，都是对阵0.500以上的对手，将是定义波特兰赛季的关键，这个赛季一直很难定义。如果开拓者队能在接下来的六场比赛中取得任何成功，他们将有很好的机会以0.500或以上的成绩结束本赛季，因为他们可以继续以联盟第二容易的剩余实力冲刺。开拓者队高居第18位，低至第22位。这是开拓者队在第19版每周实力排名中的位置，他们打出了联盟第三长连胜。

值得一提的是，John Schuhmann，Zach Harper和Colin Ward-Henninger等著名体育媒体人都或多或少的提高了开拓者的本周势力排名，由于篇幅有限，详情见英文版链接。

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