The Portland Trail Blazers may not be on one of the best teams in the league; however, they are coming off a solid week by their standards. 

The Blazers, which currently have an 11-21 record as we have approached the new year, won two out of three games this past week.

The Blazers didn’t face the best competition and had some luck along the way, but nonetheless, they came away with some big wins and were fortunate to have a solid two-game winning streak. 

Portland may not have much to play for this year, but they saw an uptick from this week’s power rankings, at least according to NBA.com. 

John Schuhmann of NBA.com ranked the Blazers No. 25, two spots better than last week. 

“The Blazers remain one of three teams that rank in the bottom five on both ends of the floor, but they’re occasionally competitive (no matter the strength of the competition) and have won two straight games.

“The last five games (which include wins over Denver and Dallas) have been the Blazers’ best stretch of offense this season (115.2 points scored per 100 possessions). Five guys have averaged at least 14 points over the five games, with Shaedon Sharpe leading the way with 23 per game on an effective field goal percentage of 62.5%. He’s still at just 30% from 3-point range for the season, but he made five 3-pointers for just the third time in his career in the Blazers’ win over Utah on Thursday.”

The Blazers have been slightly better this year against teams with winning records. They only had seven wins last year in that category, but this season, they already have the same number of wins against 16 teams who are currently over .500. 

The Blazers still have a long way to go; however, this Portland team can clearly compete with the best of them when they are right. 

Portland is already off to a rough start to the week, as they dropped a game to the Philadelphia 76ers and by a ton. Their next two games of the week won’t be easy, as they’ll both be on the road against tough competition, including the Los Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The Blazers currently hold the 13th seed in the tough Western conference and are 6.5 games back from the last spot, which belongs to the New Orleans Pelicans.  

More Blazers: Blazers Wing Takes ‘Responsibility’ for Blowout Loss to 76ers with Career-Worst Stat