From RealGM
prior to his latest injury, Jimmy Butler had missed 4 games; one of those was Portland. Since he was injured, Minny has played 5 games, one of those was Portland. Blazers won both games. To this point, Portland is the only team Minny has played twice without Butler. Of the 9 games Butler has missed, 3 were against eastern conference teams, and two more were against the Kings and the Warriors. Minny beat the Clippers and lost to the Jazz
* the Lakers leading scorer, Brandon Ingram, has missed 7 games this year...two were against Portland. And in that first game Lakers were missing Brook Lopez who has missed 8 games this year
* John Wall missed 9 consecutive games earlier in the season, before his knee injury at the end of January. Of those 9 games, two were against Portland, Blazer won one game. And Mike Scott missed one of the 5 games he's missed this year against Portland too. Looking at Wall's game log, the Clippers and the Jazz also got wins against Wash. when Wall was injured, but that's it of the WC teams Portland is competing with for the 3rd-8th seeds.
* Hassan Whiteside has missed 18 games this year and of course one was against Portland. But to be fair, the Wolves and Pelicans also got wins against the Whiteside-less Heat, and the Spurs have two. Also, Tyler Johnson played in 37 of 39 games to start the season and one of the games missed was against Portland.
* Anthony Davis has essentially missed 7 games this year; two were against Portland, one a Blazer win. Rockets and Warriors also have wins against the Davis-less Pelicans but no other WC team does. Clippers, Wolves and Jazz all have wins against the Cousins-less Pelicans; Portland plays them on the 27th but the way things are going, Davis will probably miss that game
* Portland's 1 win against Denver came when Gary Harris missed one of the 4 games he's missed
* For Indiana, Myles Turner has missed 16 games. Blazers played them in two of those games, both were Blazer wins. The only other WC teams with wins in those games are OKC and the Lakers
* TJ Warren has missed 4 games this season, one was against Portland
* Carmelo Anthony has missed 4 games this year, one was against Portland when the Blazers won a fairly tight game
* Blazers have a win against the Spurs without Kahwi. Obviously, just about anybody who has wins against the Spurs have had the same advantage...he's only played in 9 games. It's worth noting that in those 9 games the Spurs had wins over the Nuggets and Clippers. But in that Blazer win over San Antonio, the Spurs were also missing Danny Green, Rudy Gay, and Tony Parker
* Blazers beat Orlando missing Evan Fournier but the Pelicans and Nuggets did as well
* Blazers beat the Clippers without Austin Rivers, but OKC, Minny, and Utah did the same thing. But unlike those other teams, Portland had the exquisite timing to play the Clips right after Blake Griffin has been traded but before Tobias Harris and Avery Bradley had been cleared to play.
* Portland beat Chicago when Lauri Markkanen missed one of the 6 games he's missed. The Clippers did too
* Portland beat the Knicks missing Porzingis. The only other WC team Portland is competing with for seeding that did the same was the Clippers. However, in the Portland win, Courtney Lee missed the only game he has missed all year
that's about all the patience I have for looking that stuff up. I'm sure there's more. And of course, the news is the Blazers will play the Warriors tonight when Curry is out
as far as your point, sure, it's entirely possible. it's likely Portland has had to play against healthy teams and their WC peers got some breaks. But like I said, I've been watching the NBA for a long time and I can't really recall the Blazers have a run of 'luck' this large and this sustained
there's another significant component of this too:
* Portland: Dame-CJ-Nurkic have missed 11 games combined
* Houston: Harden-Paul-Gordon have missed 34 games
* Warriors: Curry-Durant-Green and missed 31 games
* Pelicans: Davis-Cousins-Holiday have missed 26 games (and 17 more to come for Cousins with Davis doubtful tonight)
* Spurs: Kahwi-Aldridge-Gasol have missed 68 games (with Green-Gay 47 more)
* Minny: Butler-Towns-Teague have missed 22 (and more coming for Butler)
* OKC: Westbrook-PG-Melo have missed 9 (but their version of Aminu, Roberson has missed 28)
* LAC: Griffin(before trade)-Jordan-Rivers have missed 41
* Utah: Mitchell-Gobert-Favors have missed 33
* Denver: Jokic-Harris-Millsap have missed 55 games
So then, I think the 'evidence', circumstantial as it is presented here, is that Portland has benefited by other teams' injuries more then their competitors, but maybe an opposing case can be made
