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Having lost their last five straight games to fall to 4-7 on the season, the Portland Trail Blazers plummeted in various Week 3 power rankings around the league.
Occupying the mid to low-teens last week, the Portland fell to No. 25 in three of the weekly power rankings and to No. 26 in two others.
Note that Eric Freeman's power rankings on Yahoo.com rank the teams by the NBA's most interesting to least interesting, not by best to worst. Last week, the Blazers ranked No. 3 in Freeman's most interesting rankings, and between No. 16 and No. 20 in the other four listed below.
Here is a summary of what each analyst said regarding the Blazers' current ranking.
No. 26 (last week: No. 19) Jeremy Woo, SI.com
The Blazers have lost five straight, and Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum's three-point percentages corrected accordingly. Expect Portland's results going forward to match the streakiness of its two-pronged attack.
No. 26 (last week: No. 3) Eric Freeman, Yahoo.com, BDL's Most Interesting Team Power Rankings
This ranking is somewhat unfair, because the Blazers continue to play the high-energy style that made them a delightful early-weeks surprise. But they've now lost five in a row and face the Spurs on the road Monday night, which means that they're probably falling back to their expected level as a mostly enjoyable also-ran.
No. 25 (last week No. 16) Matt Moore, CBS.com
The hangover has come to Portland.
No. 25 (last week No. 20) Marc Stein, ESPN.com
If it were up to me, Portland would not have hosted San Antonio on the same night Dallas hosted DeAndre Jordan, because I'd want to save the LaMarcus Aldridge return for separate viewing. And road reunions didn't work out any better for the Blazers, with Nicolas Batum lasered in and clearly playing for something bigger Sunday night.
No. 25 (last week No. 17) John Schuhmann, NBA.com
The Blazers have had a fourth-quarter lead in three of their last five games, but they've lost all five. They held their first five opponents of the season under a point per possession, but have allowed the last six to score 113.5 per 100. Allen Crabbe (12.0 points per game on 63 percent shooting in his last six games) has shows signs of being another consistent backcourt contributor, but this team can't stay afloat if it doesn't get stops.
Portland plays four games this week, starting tonight in San Antonio against the Spurs at 5:30 p.m. PST. The Blazers play the Rockets in Houston on Wednesday, Nov. 18, then host the Clippers on Friday, Nov. 20 before returning to the road on Sunday against the Lakers to wrap up the week.