In the unlikeliest of potential permutations, the Portland Trail Blazers have a direct and easy path to winning their Group and participating in the 2025 NBA Cup tournament.

Group A, informally dubbed the “Group of Death”, includes the Blazers, the Denver Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and Golden State Warriors. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the only major contenders in the Western Conference not included in the cluster. Looking at the names, you’d figure that the Blazers have about as much chance of moving forward as a sugar cube in a Portland rainstorm.

In that vein, the Blazers fell to the Rockets in a 26-point blowout last week. Not only did that pin a loss on Portland’s ledger, it put them way behind in one of the key tiebreakers: point differential among group game

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