The Portland Trail Blazers have their eye on rising into eighth place in the Western Conference, and the next six games may decide whether they can do so.
Portland enters a home-heavy stretch filled with also-ran teams on Monday night when it opposes the visiting Brooklyn Nets.
The Trail Blazers (35-37) closed a 3-2 road trip with a 128-112 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
Five of the Blazers’ next six games will be at home, and none of the five foes will be part of the playoffs or play-in round, including the Nets (17-54).
The lone road game will be against the Los Angeles Clippers, the team Portland hopes to pass and finish eighth in the conference. The Trail Blazers are a half-game behind the Clippers.
Portland missed a chance to get to .500 with the loss in Denver, a result that left Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter feeling a bit sour about the five-game trip.
The Trail Blazers opened with a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers before beating the Nets, Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves prior to the defeat in the Mile High City.
“It could be better,” Splitter said of the trip. “I think that game in Philly, we should have been better. At the end of the day, it’s 3-2 and we got to take it and go take care of business at home. We have an important week in front of us.”
Deni Avdija had 23 points and matched his career best of 14 assists against Denver while Donovan Clingan added 18 points and 13 rebounds. Clingan has 10 or more boards in nine straight games.
The Trail Blazers never led in the contest, and Denver exposed them in transition with a 27-9 edge in fast-break points.
“They put a lot of pressure on us in transition,” Splitter said. “We couldn’t rebound as well as we wanted, and they were running against our defense and getting easy baskets.”
In a road game against the Nets last Monday, Portland had seven players score in double digits during a 114-95 triumph. The Trail Blazers led 65-41 at halftime and cruised to the win.
That was loss No. 4 of the Nets’ current seven-game losing streak. The latest was Sunday’s 126-122 road setback to the Sacramento Kings in an outcome that dropped Brooklyn to 2-17 over its last 19 games.
Rookie Ben Saraf scored a season-best 22 points against Sacramento and has reached double digits in five of the past six games.
“Probably one of his best games at finishing at the rim,” Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernandez said of Saraf. “I like how aggressive he was, five assists to two turnovers.”
Saraf had 15 points, four assists and a season-high four steals in the recent loss to Portland.
Ziaire Williams and Malachi Smith added 18 points apiece against the Kings on Sunday. The point total was a career-best for Smith, who made 7 of 9 field-goal attempts while playing in his fifth NBA game.
Fernandez was highly impressed by the way his team handled the ball against the Kings. Two games earlier, his club committed 23 turnovers while being routed 121-92 by the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder. That was the night the Nets scored 24 points in the first half.
Against the Kings, Brooklyn committed just one miscue in the opening half.
“Our 30 assists to only seven turnovers is very impressive,” Fernandez said. “So that’s definitely a step forward for us.”
