THAT'S IT. PORTLAND'S CEILING IS THE 8TH SEED.False. Teams who lose 6 straight at home usually have only one concern going forward: how many ping pong balls will we have in the draft lottery. It has now been more than a month since the Blazers won a home game (Last win was Nov. 18 over the Kings.) Obviously any team misses their star player; it has just never seemed quite this obvious how much Portland missed Lillard. No one took leadership in this game. Stotts screwed up the starting line-up. All is lost for this season.

In order to gain some perspective, let's look at 3 things: recent results, the standings and Stotts' history.

Recent results: Portland has completed not one, but 2 successful, winning road trips this month. At the end of the long road trip on Monday, they batted the 4th place team in the West down to the wire. Returning home, they had a chance to tie or beat the 3rd place team in the West. Both of these were high energy quality games. Tonight's game was the first game reacting to the late word that there would be no Dame. Portland gave the effort, but could not come close to competing. It happens in the best of times and circumstances. It was not surprising tonight.

Standings: Despite the home woes, Portland remains tied for 7th and is only a single game out of 5th. The good news is that the West is not nearly the impossible melee predicted before the season. Memphis is gone. LAC is depleted. Quinn Snyder is doing a great job with Utah, but Gobert is off and on injured, and they are still trying to replace Hayword and Hill. .500 basketball has a very good chance of making the play-offs, and it won't take much more than that to contend for the 5th/6th seed. Denver, OKC and New Orleans have been up and down this season as much as the Blazers.

Stotts' History: Terry has routinely shaped Portland into a better squad by the last half of the season. They are still searching for answers right now.

AFTER MONTHS OF RIDICULE, THIS WAS THE REVENGE OF THE TRADE.True. The Nuggets win tonight does not resolve who won last season's trade. Neither did Portland's play-off clinching win last season or the romp earlier this year. Portland fans slip into and out of Nurk fever faster than a hypochondriac on speed. He's elite. He hasn't developed. He's awesome. He's a bum. After dominating Jokic twice, Nurk got torched by the Joker tonight.

Denver fans get tired of explaining how it was addition by subtraction. The front office is tired of having to explain the 1st rounder they threw in. Denver wanted that play-off spot last season, and the Nurk led Blazers stole it from them.

Some teams might have let down once it was announced that Dame was out. Instead, Denver increased their focus. Jokic was sensational with 27, 8 and 6. He even taunted Portland with his one foot jump shot ala Dirk. It was "good Chandler" night, with 21 and 11. Harris was unstoppable at the rim and Barton was controlled. And Mason Plumlee played an unbelievable game with effective post moves and SIX blocks. One night does not decide a winner in this trade; but this was the first time the Nuggets put up a fight.

DAME'S HEALTH IS CRUCIAL.True. Portland's medical staff took a seemingly foolish risk by re-inserting him into the Spurs game. It is telling that Dame thought he had been kicked by Gasol when he 1st felt this injury. If any of you have been running and been "snipered" by a muscle injury, you know how serious it can be. You feel the snap of the pull and look around to see who hit you. Lillard seemed to have full motion tonight on the bench, and Blazer fans have to hope that it is the mildest of strains. If it becomes a full tear, the trajectory of this season is dramatically different.

Having said that, Portland can and will play better without Dame than they did tonight. The Layman experiment felt like a desperation move. Either start Pat or Napier tomorrow. The Lakers have played a brilliant stretch of basketball against elite opponents. A young team like LA can often stumble and play down to or below their opposition if they lose focus. CJ needs to take charge, and there needs to be more team play and less hero ball to make up for Lillard's absence.

FINAL GRADE: Portland's bench put up some fight tonight. Napier, Davis, Zach and Pat all fought well in their first half stretch. Too many players failed when they tried to take things on their own offensively. Chief was the chief culprit. CJ needed to be special; he was ordinary. Napier had to initiate too much of the offense for himself. He is more efficient in small doses. Collins continued his sterling play with a variety of solid moves. He needs to realize that if he is needed for more minutes he cannot just hand out fouls at will. 6-22 will not get it done without Dame, even if there is less space in his absence. Tonight's result was not unexpected, but is was disappointing. D