With the playoffs quickly approaching, now is the time for the Portland Trail Blazers to separate themselves from the bottom half of the league and make a strong closing push to the regular season. Much easier said than done, as the top five seeds in the Western Conference are juggernauts in the league.

Portland currently resides in sixth place in the Western Conference, holding a 30-21 record. It's a solid record that should earn them a spot in the postseason. However, Damian Lillard provided a brutal take on the Trail Blazers title hopes, per NBC Sports.

“When we play against the top-level teams, we don't play well,” Lillard said. “We get put away.”

“At Phoenix, we got put away. Tonight, we got put away. At Denver, we got put away. Milwaukee at home, we got put away. Clippers, got put away. I mean, you know, it's not like a small sample size.”

With plenty of evidence of the Trail Blazers struggling against the top teams in the league, time is running out for Portland to turn that around. According to NBC Sports, “Portland began the week in sixth place in the Western Conference with a 1-6 record against the teams above it in the standings. After blowout losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz (Portland's last two games), they are now 1-8 against those teams.”

Luckily for the Trail Blazers, they don't have to face any elite teams in the league for their next five games. This could be a perfect time for the team to hone their skills and come together and figure things out before the postseason starts. On paper, this is a team that should be competing night in and night out against the top tier teams. It just hasn't unraveled as such in those matchups. The Trail Blazers will try to bounce back on Saturday night when they take on the Detroit Pistons.