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The cliché about playing defense is truly fitting as Portland carries a four-game winning streak into Friday’s matchup with the Washington Wizards.  (7 p.m.  televised on CSN (37).)

The Blazers are allowing the fewest points per game (95.2) of any team in the Western Conference and have held opponents under 100 points in 48 games. That is the most by any team in the West.

Key components of the Portland formula are defensive rebounds (28.2 per game, ranking second in the NBA) and steals (5.99, league leader). Certainly, the addition of center Marcus Camby at the NBA trade deadline in mid-February helped change Portland’s fortunes.

The yellow sticky note no longer hangs from Brandon Roy’s locker at the Rose Garden, but the words once scribbled out in red marker remain permanent: “Stay Humble.”

It’s a two-word mantra the Portland Trail Blazers all-star guard began living by long before he became the face of a resurging franchise or an $82 million man this last summer. It began back when he was just an 18-year-old kid hosing out shipping containers at the Port of Seattle for $11 an hour.

“I’d come home just dirty from cleaning out containers and moving boxes on the forklift. I’d have to clean the bathrooms. I’d drive truck back and forth between docks. Some days I’d have to just sweep,” Roy remembered as he leaned against his locker after yet another Blazers home win.