The time for watching the schedule and standings is upon the . Chauncey Billups and Damian Lillard admitted as much Wednesday night after the team’s to the New Orleans Pelicans. What they’re viewing right now isn’t pretty. The Blazers, 1-3 since returning from the All-Star break, sit in 12th place in the Western Conference after dropping two games against teams that are among a group of eight separated by no more than three games in the standings. The bad news is that the Blazers can’t string together victories. The good news is that they still remain in the mix to earn a play-in bid, or even an outright playoff berth. Still, this start to the final stretch of the season is not what Lillard had in mind when days ago he urged the team to elevate its sense of urgency with the season winding down. First came the Portland snowstorm that delayed the team’s arrival in Sacramento and led to Lillard and Jerami Grant sitting out the loss. Then, after Lillard’s 71-point mega performance in a win over Houston, the Blazers couldn’t hold leads against the Golden State Warriors and Pelicans. “A lot of adversity for our team to fight against and then just being in position to win these games and then not pulling them out,” Lillard said. “I think it’s just been tough. ” But hope still remains. The Blazers (29-33) trail the 10th-place Pelicans (31-32) by just 1½ games and are three games behind the Warriors (32-30) and LA Clippers (33-31), who are tied for fifth. At some point, Lillard said, the Blazers’ luck could change. “A lot of times, and it’s not guaranteed, it eventually comes back and you start to win some of these games,” he said. “And that’s why I feel like it’s possible for us that some of these games start swinging back in our favor. ” Also, he pointed out, the teams they are chasing have a lot of games remaining against one another. “I look at the schedule, you see they happen to go head to head and they all in the same traffic that we in,” Lillard said. “A couple of teams lose and it’s a completely different thing. So, I think that’s what is encouraging for me. Obviously you don’t want to be in a situation where you fighting for 10 or nine, or anything like that, but at this point, we just got to keep scratching and clawing and understand that it’s a tight race and a lot of these teams are going to be playing against each other and you just don’t know what’s going to happen. ” The math adds up. In fact, had the Blazers picked up wins over Golden State and the Pelicans, they would be 31-31 and in a three-way tie for seventh place with the Warriors and Minnesota (32-32). That’s how precarious the race is at this point. But for any run of wins to take place, the Blazers must get healthy. Anfernee Simons re-injured his right ankle against the Pelicans. Justise Winslow (ankle) has been out since December. Jusuf Nurkic (calf) has missed 11 consecutive games. His absence has been a killer. The Blazers, who have struggled defensively for much of the season, have been reeling at that end of the court since Nurkic re-injured his calf early during the team’s win at Memphis on Feb. 1. The Blazers’ defensive rating is 117 (27th in the NBA). In the 12 games since Nurkic went down (counting the Memphis game in which he played three minutes), the team’s defensive rating is 124. Backup center Drew Eubanks has played solidly, but he doesn’t bring the interior presence Nurkic does. “There’s been a void left from Nurk,” Billups said. “We don’t have anybody that can fill that void, obviously. And we know we need it on both sides of the floor. We need him to be back. ” Winslow’s absence — he hasn’t played since Dec. 21 — has also dented the defense. In addition, Lillard said the Blazers miss Winslow’s ability to operate as a facilitator, which allows Lillard and Simons more freedom on offense. Nurkic and Winslow will be on the upcoming six-game trip that begins Friday in Atlanta. But Billups said he had no idea if either would see any action. Making the underachieving even more glaring is that Lillard is having arguably the greatest season of his career while expending a lot of energy on a nightly basis. But he said he is up for the challenge. “Obviously, I don’t want to go out there and kill myself every game just to have a result like tonight, but it has to happen,” he said. “I know that I’m conditioned to do it physically and mentally and it is what it is. I got to go out there and do what I got to do to try to put some wins on the board and give us a chance to keep playing. ” Clearly he needs help. Plenty of time remains for help to come and the team to turn things around. But the margin for error declines with each defeat. -- Aaron Fentress | | (Twitter), (Instagram), (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive and.