So it looks like the lakers drew the tougher path to the conference finals with potentially blazers and rockets. meanwhile, the other drew mavs and nuggets.... ugh, sickening.
Going to be rough, I wanted Portland though. Lilliard is entertaining, he has that will to win games with crazy s*** we don't see often. I don't see how they can beat us in a series though, definitely won't be a walk in the park. Houston worries me, at the very least it will be a long series and wear LeBron down.. he's ancient and we lose if he's not A-game, this is going to be an incredibly tough playoffs. I want to see that Kobe passion jumping up and down on enemy rib cages and scowling at everything. I miss that.
Those types of players don't exist anymore, unfortunately. Kobe and Artest were among the last ones, IMO.
Rockets' Russell Westbrook to miss at least first few playoff games with injury. Oklahoma will sweep Rockets
people underestimating the rox without westbrook...hes been out plenty of other times and harden was able to carry em for periods of time. Now whether the rox end up winning the series, who knows? But I don't think they will be swept
it's an interesting question. problem with harden-led teams has been his utter lack of heart. he just quits when things go south, and everyone follows. russ doesn't do that, and i think that helps that team. he's also one of the only other driving threats on offense, so they'll need dudes like austin rivers to take on roles i don't think they can handle. all that said, dantoni's current system is full-on gimmick ball on both ends (his ultimate dream), and the only necessity is that he has harden on offense and both pj tucker and covington on defense. i think he can pretty much shuttle in d-leaguers who won't complain at the other roles and have similar results, tbh. so yeah, i'd expect them to compete with okc even without westbrook--unless tucker or covington goes down. in which case, they'll never stop anyone ever.
Now it all comes down to one final game - Portlandia v. Brooklyn. We'll see. Would rather play the winner of Memphis/Suns, but I think it'll be Portland taking the 8th seed with a win tonight. But you never know.
Not underestimating Lillard here but he looks gassed. Facing a tired Lillard may not be a bad alternative to facing the inexperienced Grizzlies.
I'm hoping it's the Blazers. It's all about match up in the playoff, and we have all the advantages across the board. They are playing a 3 guard lineup (Dame, CJ, Trent) and none of these guys can match up with Lebron. AD is average over 32ppg against them. There will be alot of wide open looks for Green, Kuz, & KCP all day long, with them doubling down on LBJ and AD. Dame is making some of the most lowest % shot, and I'm gladly give him those looks all day. BTW, Blazers play absolutely 0 defense.
lillard aside, blazers size worries me they've been playing nurkic and whiteside together and that could cause problems
Our guard rotation will get smoked. Are our bigs THAT much better to make up the difference? I hope so. If not, we never deserved to be champions. Matchups can make great series.
