In John Schuman’s NBA Power Rankings for week 8, the Portland Trail Blazers have fallen to 13th after placing seventh the previous week. Two weeks ago, when Portland was sitting pretty at 10-3, they claimed second. Since then, they’ve begun a rapid descent, dropping seven of their last 10 and suffering some of their worst losses of the season which included a 43-point disaster in Milwaukee.
Defense has been a major problem for these Trail Blazers recently. As Schuman points out, the team holds the worst defensive rating in the league over their disappointing 10-game stretch, giving up 118.