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Blazers’ eyes on magic number

NBA playoffs in sight in final weeks of season

By Erik Gundersen, Columbian Trail Blazers Writer
Published: April 1, 2016, 8:23pm

PORTLAND — As the NBA season winds down, things are turning up a few notches for a few teams, including the Portland Trail Blazers.

For the third time this week, the Blazers had an optional maintenance day as to not over work their players during an important but compressed part of the schedule.

Thursday’s thrilling win over the Boston Celtics pulled the Blazers to within 1 1/2 game of the fifth-place Memphis Grizzlies, who’ve come to resemble an infirmary.

Although teams during the Brandon Roy and Greg Oden era were sometimes referred to as the “frail Blazers,” the Memphis team in front of Portland right now has the ominous distinction of cycling through more players in one season than any other team in history.

As it currently stands, the Grizzlies play six of their final seven games against teams who are above .500, including playing the Warriors twice.

Memphis’ first meeting against Golden State on April 9 in Memphis could be win No. 73 for the Warriors if they win every game between now and then, including Sunday against Portland.

However, the Grizzlies final meeting of the season against Golden State could present problems for the Blazers if the Warriors have already broke the NBA record for wins by the final day of the season.

The magic number for the Blazers to just get into the playoff is now at 4, meaning any combination of Blazers wins and Houston losses would guarantee a spot in the playoffs.

For now, the Blazers are paying lip service to the notion that playoffs are the first goal, but anyone who looks at the standings knows the Blazers have good reason to think bigger.

But they don’t see much of a difference in their would-be opponents.

“We know its there,” CJ McCollum said of the standings. “Every match-up is going to be tough in the playoffs. Clippers are a good team. Thunder are a good team. Spurs are a good team. We know whoever we play we’re going to have our hands full. We want to give ourselves a best chance.”

Those chances would be helped by a win over Miami on Saturday, one of three teams at .500 or better the Blazers will face in their final six games.

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Columbian Trail Blazers Writer