Still riding the high of Damian Lillard’s historic 71-point performance against the Houston Rockets Sunday evening, the Portland Trail Blazers stare down an invaluable opportunity to make up ground in the Western Conference Standings this week. Starting tonight, the 11th place Blazers play back-to-back games against teams directly ahead of them in Play-In position: the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans. If Portland is destined to push into the playoffs with 22 games left in the season, this two-day stretch may prove crucial.
Tonight’s challenger, the seventh-place Warriors, stand just 1.5 games ahead of Portland in the standings.