This game for blazers was quite important to actually see how the others play and not if they could win or not. Pelicans are not really a great team of course so they could have still won the game however when your best player is out (and I wish CJ was out resting as well, would emphasize this better) you get to see who are the other players that you know that could help the team out, Lakers literally did that last year and kept Kuzma while sending all others, sure there were other things involved but they could have easily sent Kuzma as well.

Here blazers saw that they could rely on other players as well when Dame is not on his best day or he is guarded extra etc etc, we all knew CJ was good but seeing Melo still playing well really helped them and hopefully their playoff chase is not just over yet.