The Trail Blazers are fighting for …

The Trail Blazers are fighting for their postseason lives. The eight restart games aren’t just the final regular-season games; these bubble contests are being viewed as playoff games by the franchise. Entering the restart outside of the playoffs, Damian Lillard still prepped ambitiously for the Orlando trip. “I packed for the entire three months,” the All-Star guard told Yahoo Sports. But Portland, +8000 to win the West at BetMGM, isn’t necessarily looking to overtake the Grizzlies. With the play-in scenario implemented for postseason qualification, the ninth seed only has to be four games or fewer behind the eighth seed at season’s end to force a play-in. The ninth seed has to win straight games against the eighth seed to advance to the postseason.