It doesn’t seem like long ago that the Portland Trail Blazers were one of the best teams in the NBA. Now, they are in danger of missing the playoffs. Baron Davis summed up their recent performance with a legendary NBA quote on Tuesday night.
“The ship be sinking,” Davis said to the enjoyment of his TNT colleagues.
As many of you know, that quote was made famous by former New York Knicks point guard Michael Ray Richardson when he used it to describe his team’s collapse during the 1981-82 season. Davis explained how it applies to the Blazers.
“They’re just not playing as a team,” he said. “When you have someone like (Lamarcus) Aldridge hurt, that’s really going to hurt your team. They’re falling in the standings and they’re falling fast.”
Aldridge has not played since March 12. Portland has gone 3-4 in his absence, but the trouble started before Aldridge went down. While they are certainly missing his 23.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, the Blazers have lost nine of their last 14 games. They were playing just as poorly with Aldridge.
The biggest issue? Just 2.5 games separate the Blazers, who are currently in sixth place in the Western Conference, from the ninth-place Phoenix Suns. With 10 games remaining, Portland does not have much separation between making and missing the playoffs.
