The Portland Trail Blazers look considerably different than they did at this time last week with Jusuf Nurkic returning to the lineup after missing over two months with a broken right wrist and the addition of Norman Powell at the trade deadline. But even with those improvements to the roster, not to mention winning three-straight and seven of their last 10, the Trail Blazers standing in this week’s Power Rankings remains mostly unchanged.
But considering they’ve mostly defeat the teams that they should -- and with margins that are often slimmer than you’d like to see -- it’s a bit difficult to argue that they should be ranked higher.