NBA Portland Trail Blazers

Portland Trail Blazers Continue Surge Towards Top In West

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Wesley Matthews Portland

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers have quietly gone about their business in the NBA‘s Western Conference and their assault on the top spot in the West continued on Sunday night. The Trail Blazers rolled to their eighth win in their last nine games with a convincing 101-79 victory over the dreadful New York Knicks.

Portland has surged up in the Western Conference standings behind the strong play of their backcourt tandem of Damian Lillard and Wesley Matthews. While the duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson receives a fair share of the headlines for the league-leading Golden State Warriors, Lillard and Matthews can match the firepower of the “Splash Brothers.” Matthews was dominant on Sunday night, leading all scorers with 28 points on 10 of 21 shooting, including six of 15 from three-point range.

The win pulled the Trail Blazers (25-7) to within a half game of the idle Warriors for first place in the conference. Their recent run proves that last season was not a fluke and Portland will be a serious contender come playoff time. They have legitimate scoring threats on the perimeter and power forward LaMarcus Aldridge provides a consistent inside threat. Aldridge, who leads the Trail Blazers with 22.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, anchors a front line that leads the NBA in rebounding per game with 46.6 rebounds.

With a three-headed monster rolling like they are now, Portland can match up with any of the other western powers whom they might face. They have experienced postseason success and failure after dispatching the Houston Rockets in six games, but falling to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs in a five-game series that wasn’t all that close. The experiences gained from those two series should help this year’s team in knowing what to expect when the postseason rolls around.

The Western Conference will be a battle all season long with the quality teams that reside in the West. If the Trail Blazers keep playing like they have, they will challenge for the top spot and won’t be flying under anyone’s radar come playoff time.

Patrick Leiva is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleiva4 and add him to your network on Google.

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