Portland Trailblazers and Their Problems at Home

You'd be forgiven for taking a quick look at the Portland Trailblazers 2012 season and thinking that they were traveling along just fine.

Currently sitting eighth in the Western Conference, Portland has a 15-14 record for the season, with an impressive 11-4 record at home.

However, look closer at this side and their numbers, and you'll see that while the other playoff contenders are getting better, Portland is not.

In fact, they're going in the other direction.

This is a side that started out the season with seven straight wins at home.

The Rose Garden became fortress Portland, as they racked up an average of over 100 points per game, and teams simply could not compete with this high-flying offense.

But then, on the 6th of February, Portland lost at home in overtime, 111-107 to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Two days later, they lost at home to the Houston Rockets—this time by seven.

And last night, the Trailblazers went down again at the Rose Garden to the Washington Wizards, who put 120 points on the Blazers to take a comfortable 15 point victory.

Portland just can't seem to get it going at home.

And no offense to either Houston or Washington, but they're not the toughest of teams to beat in the National Basketball Association—especially when you have home court advantage.

No, the toughest teams to beat are the ones that Portland will have to play next, as they undergo one of the toughest three week periods in the entire league.

In addition to road games at the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, Portland will host the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.

Their home court advantage seems to be doing the exact opposite for the Trailblazers, and whilst it's not worth condemning their season on the back of the three games, it does start to set a dangerous precedent.

Especially if the they can only manage one or two wins at home in that stretch. Portland will drop out of the top eight and all their earlier season success will seem like an eternity ago.

But in this day and age where the home team usually gets the W next to their name, Portland is defying all of this, and if they don't stop soon, they might have some serious catching up to do.

Nobody at the Rose Garden wants to see the Blazers lose, but at the moment, it's all that seems to be on the schedule.

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