Where's the leak?

Portland dropped its 6th straight game tonight to the lowly Wizards, putting the Blazers at 8-11 for the year. It's also worth mentioning that Dallas, Denver, San Antonio and Utah have all been on winning streaks while the Blazers have been in their current tail spin. I was serious when I tweeted that Portland would win 60 games this year; now it looks like I was 15-20 wins off. Add the current losing streak to division losses to...well, everyone they've played (including two losses to OKC), and it looks like the Blazers might miss the playoffs and move back down to the basketball purgatory of a late lottery pick in the NBA draft. So what's the problem, exactly? There are several popular options:

1) Injuries have left the team devastated. The traditional logic says that without Oden or Pendergraph, the team has been out-rebounded in pretty much every game this year and relying on Sean Marks to an alarming degree, and Roy has been hobbling around a lot, but I don't think that's the real issue. Roy's been back for a few games and has managed to get his points--he had 18 tonight--and the team managed to use (La)Marcus inside to get to 50 wins last year.

2) Fire Nate! Some people think that the coach has mixed around lineups so much that people, like Nic Batum, are uncomfortable in their roles on the team and their minutes on the court, and his slow-down style is crushing the young and athletic team that always seems to play better when they run. I don't buy this excuse, either. There's a reason why the defensive-minded Nate is on everyone's short list to replace coach Spo in Miami next year--he's good! All the Nate haters need to look around the league and see how few coaches are better than him. This is the guy who took an injury-ravaged team to the playoffs last year.

3) No leadership. Many fans think that teams that lose in the 4th quarter over and over again--which has been Portland's specialty this year--lack a veteran who simply won't let those collapses happen. Nope. Not buying that, either. Roy has hit lots of buzzer-beaters in the past and Miller and Camby have been around forever. Plus, LaMarcus isn't exactly a kid anymore and Joel's been in the league for a while, too. The team has veterans and does not lack leaders.

Honestly, I think it's probably a little of all three. Although the team has all the components of a winning team, years of playing the high-energy, scrappy underdogs fighting through everything likely takes a toll on everyone. Still, losing game after game in the fourth quarter, even to terrible teams, is not an accident. Something's wrong in Portland--I just wish I knew what it was.