You can certainly parse the variables responsible for their recent successes, but regardless, there's no debate that the Trail Blazers are coming off their first great week of the 2019-20 season. After starting the week in twelfth place in the Western Conference standings, the Blazers are currently in eighth, half a game ahead of the Kings and ninth and half a game behind the Thunder in seventh, after winning four straight and five of their last six.
Is some of that recent success due to playing sub .500 teams at home? Sure, but it's not as if the Trail Blazers are operating with anywhere close to their full compliment of players -- Carmelo Anthony has missed seven of Portland's last eight quarters -- and winning the games they're "supposed to win" has been tougher than many assumed, so there's no reason to judge victories too harshly.