Blazers Sink In Power Rankings

The Portland Trail Blazers fell eight places in the most recent CBS Sports power rankings from Colin Ward-Henninger. The CBS Sports power rankings look at a team’s performance over the previous week, and the Blazers have been without star point guard Damian Lillard. Ward-Henninger notes that the Blazers face an interesting set of challenges.

Portland is officially in the danger zone after falling out of play-in position with four straight losses this week. Damian Lillard may be back soon, but CJ McCollum is out indefinitely with a collapsed lung — definitely scary stuff. With Lillard missing all four games and McCollum missing two this week, the Blazers only mustered 96.7 points per 100 possessions, and their defense isn’t good enough to get wins with that dearth of scoring. As the main focal point of the offense, Norman Powell averaged almost 20 points per game this week, but shot just 34 percent from the field.

Ward-Henninger slots the Blazers in the 26th place overall, in between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

You can read the entire rankings here.