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Wizards-Trail Blazers Preview

Mar 19, 2010 - 1:51 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Washington (21-45) at Portland (41-28), 10:00 p.m. EDT

Four consecutive wins and seven in eight games has the Portland Trail Blazers feeling good about their chances of getting into the playoffs.

They'd feel even better if they could move up from eighth place in the Western Conference.

The Trail Blazers are just 1 1/2 games out of fifth, and they'll have a great chance to maintain their momentum Friday night as they look to deal the visiting Washington Wizards a 10th straight loss.

Portland (41-28) was only two games ahead of New Orleans for the No. 8 seed as of Feb. 26th, but now has put some distance between itself and the conference's fringe contenders.

The Blazers have averaged 104.6 points in their seven wins since, with five coming by double digits. LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum scored 22 apiece Sunday in a 109-98 victory over visiting Toronto.

After four days off, Portland heads into this game with a 4 1/2-game cushion over Houston for the eighth spot. Oklahoma City, Phoenix and San Antonio - the current five through seven seeds - are all within 1 1/2 games.

"We're focusing on ourselves," Blazers coach Nate McMillan told the NBA's official Web site. "We're still in that eighth spot, but we have an opportunity to move up. If we take care of business on the floor, we don't worry about where we finish as long as we're in the playoffs. If we're winning, we'll have that opportunity."

If Batum keeps playing the way he has lately, the Blazers might have a better chance of moving up and avoiding a first-round date with the West's No. 1 team. The second-year forward has averaged 14.3 points and shot 59.4 percent over his last eight games, and seems to be fully recovered from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the first three months of the season.

"He's going to get open shots just because who he's on the floor with," McMillan said. "It's just a matter of knocking those shots down. ... If he can continue, which we think he can, he's going to help us."

Portland has won four straight over the Wizards (21-45) at the Rose Garden, but came up short in the nation's capital on Jan. 18. Neither Batum nor Brandon Roy (hamstring) was available for the Blazers' 97-92 loss.

Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison accounted for nearly half of Washington's points in that game, but with the veterans dealt to Dallas and Cleveland, respectively, the rebuilding process is under way - and it isn't going well so far.

The Wizards haven't won in March, losing nine in a row by an average of 13.2 points. They capped a stretch of five games in six days - which included a visit from Atlanta that was rescheduled because of a blizzard - by falling 97-87 in Denver on Tuesday before getting two days of much-needed rest.

"I thought we played pretty well for having five games in six nights, five different cities," coach Flip Saunders said after the Nuggets pulled away in the fourth quarter. "We gave ourselves a chance. We just didn't have enough juice down the stretch."

While trying to see where players like Al Thornton and Randy Foye fit in for the long-term, Washington does appear to have found one excellent piece for the future.

Andray Blatche has averaged 24.4 points in 16 games since Jamison was traded, but he won't be 100 percent Friday if he can go at all. Saunders said the 6-foot-11 forward is "50-50" to face the Trail Blazers after spraining his ankle against Denver.