Trail Blazers troll Nuggets after taking over 8th seed in West

Down goes the Denver Nuggets, and up goes the Portland Trail Blazers.

The eighth seed in the Western Conference is now being held by Rip City after the Trail Blazers blew out the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center Sunday, 97-81.

Earlier in the night, the Nuggets failed to capitalize on a prime opportunity against a DeMarcus Cousins-less New Orleans Pelicans squad, falling 115-90 on their home floor.

To pour salt in Denver's fresh wounds, the Blazers' Twitter account sent out a pair of tweets to remind the Nuggets who's now in the driver's seat.

Both teams own records of 35-38, with Portland having the tiebreaker with a 2-1 season-series lead.

They'll play their final meeting of 2016-17 on March 28 at the Moda Center. Should Denver emerge with a victory and lock the series at 2-2, the tiebreaker would then come down to which side has a better winning percentage against teams in the Northwest Division, which Portland currently has a three-game lead in.