Like plenty of other fans I've decided to dissect the last month of action for the NW.  I noticed that we're playing a lot of teams who are on their second night of back-to-backs.  It got me thinking about how much this actually affects the outcome of a game, and how it could impact who wins the division.  Here are some comparisons between the NW teams.

Portland:  We play 7 teams who are on the second night of a back-to-back starting with our game against Philly on 3/23.  In fact, the four teams we play during that home stand are all on the second night of consecutive play.  Conversely, we only play 1 set of back-to-back games after our upcoming road trip, but 3 total when you include the upcoming road games. 

Utah: The Jazz only play 1 team who is on a second night of back-to-back games, 4/11 when they host the Warriors.  On the flip side, Utah plays 6 sets of back-to-back games for the rest of the schedule.

Denver:  The Nuggets split the difference.  They go against 4 teams who had played the night before.  Meanwhile Denver will only play 2 more back-to-back sets through the close of the season. 

Additionally, the opponents for the Jazz and Nuggets on these second nighters aren't exactly the cream of the crop.  Their opponents will be GS, and NJ, NY, OKC respectively.  These should be games that the Jazz and Nuggets win anyway.  Whereas the Blazers will play Phoenix, Utah, SA, and LAL on their second straight nights of play.  This may give Portland an edge against some tough competition during the stretch.