Portland Trail Blazers enter All-Star break with positive outlook despite disappointments

In reality, things could be a lot worse for the Portland Trail Blazers heading into the All-Star break.

The Blazers hoped to reach .500 before the break, which began Wednesday for them. But that hope died Tuesday during a 126-101 loss to the Washington Wizards at the Moda Center.

But despite sitting at 27-29 and tied for 11th place in the Western Conference, the Blazers sit just two games out of sixth place.

That reality, coupled with the injury issues that have hindered the team for much of the season, left Blazers coach Chauncey Billups with a positive attitude entering the break.

“I don’t feel bad about it at all,” Billups said after the loss to the Wizards. “I really don’t. There’s so many games that I’ve lost a lot of sleep on that I felt like we should have won before this break. And then I feel we stole a couple. But I don’t feel bad at all with what we have and where we’ve been trying to go. So, I’m OK with where we are there. I just want to get healthy and see if we can make a push.”

Damian Lillard also maintained an air of positivity.

“I think we’re trying to get over the hump,” Lillard said. “I think we’ve been playing good stretches and then take some steps back. Win some big games and then lose some that we feel like we should win. And that’s been going on pretty much the whole season. And while that’s been happening, we’ve been battling, just trying to stay healthy. Just trying to be whole and have everybody on the floor. And I think right now, that’s probably our biggest issue.”

The Blazers seemingly have enough talent to win more games than they lose. But only when healthy. They have not had enough bench experience or talent to overcome losing key players for long stretches of time. That’s probably still the case after the trade deadline

Of course, the Blazes aren’t the only NBA team to have dealt with injuries.

The New Orleans Pelicans had the best record in the West, lost Zion Williamson to a hamstring injury and at one point lost 10 consecutive games and landed as low as 10th. The Phoenix Suns also once had the best record in the NBA and then fell to pieces and all the way down to 12th place after Devin Booker went out. The ninth-place Golden State Warriors, the defending champions, have been mediocre for much of the season and that has not been helped by Stephen Curry missing 20 games to date.

The Blazers have played without their superstar, Damian Lillard, for 12 games. But they’ve been without several key players for other stretches. Jusuf Nurkic has missed 13, Justise Winslow 29 and Nassir Little 21.

“I think the biggest thing is, I’m just mostly concerned with trying to get healthy,” Billups said. “It’s tough to even gauge what we can be and where we can go without being healthy.”

Nurkic often draws ire from fans because of his inconsistency. Be the Blazers are clearly better with him in the lineup.

In eight games without Nurkic (calf injury) in February (including the Feb. 2 game at Memphis in which he played less than three minutes), the Blazers managed to go 4-4. But they allowed 123.1 points per game, with opponents shooting 51.7% from the field and 39.5% on three-pointers. The team’s defensive rating was 124.1.

“Nurk’s absence has really hurt us,” Billups said. “We’ve been able to get a game here or there. Outshoot people to get one or two. But it really hurt us.”

The Blazers had a 116.2 defensive rating with Nurkic playing 13 games in November, 114.6 in 11 games with Nurkic in December and 118.3 in 14 games played with Nurkic in January.

The January and February games were played without Justise Winslow, who has been out since Dec. 21 with an ankle injury.

FiveThirtyEight.com ranks just five Blazers with plus defensive ratings. Nurkic is at plus-1.8, Winslow plus-1.3 and Eubanks plus-0.4. The other two, Cam Reddish (plus-0.1) and Matisse Thuybulle (plus-4.9), joined the Blazers last week.

Based on the above ratings, not having Nurkic is an obvious problem defensively. Not having both Nurkic and Winslow is borderline disastrous.

This creates a situation where the Blazers must shoot well from three to have a chance of winning. That problem became even more magnified in the team’s last two games played without Jerami Grant, who suffered a concussion in Friday’s loss to Oklahoma City.

In the four defeats without Nurkic in February, the Blazers shot 31.6% on threes. In the four victories, they shot 41%.

“It’s tough to win a game like that,” Billups said.

No firm timetable has been given for the return of Nurkic or Winslow. The Blazers also face the prospect of losing Anfernee Simons for a stretch after he sprained his right ankle during the loss to the Wizards. The Blazers announced Thursday that Simons suffered a grade 2 sprain.

The Blazers, who have the fourth-rated offense in the NBA (117.9) could probably survive losing Simons if they get back Nurkic and Winslow and the defense improves.

Adding to that mix were Thybulle and Reddish, acquired at the trade deadline. Both bring defense and length to the lineup.

“Then we got our new guys who, we’ve got to try to play them, then judge and see how they fit in, especially when our big guy gets back,” Billups said.

It’s logical to assume that the defense will make a significant jump if the team can return to full strength. A better defense could produce a stretch of winning that might get the Blazers back into the top six, where they last were on Dec. 18 at 17-13.

“Get to .500 and then get over .500,” Lillard said. “I think the second part of the season, that’s what our focus has to be. Got to lock in and get over the hump and start building in a direction so we can make sure that we see some postseason action.”

— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts