The Portland Trail Blazers went 3-1 last week, taking care of the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers at home, but losing to the Los Angeles Lakers on the road. The Blazers posted solid improvements in the various NBA Power Rankings and playoff projection models, climbing into some top 10s and settling into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.Marc Stein:Blazers improve from No. 10 to No. 8John Schuhmann:Blazers improve from No. 12 to No. 10约翰-霍林格:Blazers improve from No. 13 to No. 11Jeff Sagarin:Blazers improve from No. 12 to No. 11According toHollinger's team stats: Portland improved from 14th to 12th in offensive efficiency, remained at 15th in defensive efficiency, improved from 20th to 18th in rebound rate and is once again the slowest team in the NBA when it comes to pace. Over atBasketball-Reference.com, theirplayoff forecasthas the Blazers in the Western Conference's No. 6 seed, now with a 94.3% chance of making the playoffs (up from the No. 7 seed and 85.6% last week). The New Orleans Hornets (86.5%) are No. 7, the Memphis Grizzlies (71.9%) are No. 8 and the Houston Rockets (28.9%) are No. 9. Hollinger'sPlayoff Oddshave the Blazers in the No. 6 spot, with a 93.2% chance to make the playoffs (up from the No. 7 seed and 84.9% last week). The Hornets (83.8%), Grizzlies (66.4%) and Rockets (42.0%) are 7-8-9. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter