Playoff Picture: Portland Trail Blazers
By Luke Duffy
Why They’ll Fall Short
Losing Wesley Matthews to a season-ending Achilles injury just more than a month ago was a huge blow. Matthews is the kind of player every contender realistically needs, a three-point bomber (39 percent) who typically guards opponent’s best players on a nightly basis. Afflalo is like Matthews lite, and he’ll do a similar job to his teammate. But the fact remains he’s a huge miss heading into the playoffs.
The concern though is that they’ve just come along at a bad time. The West is as good as it’s been in a long time, and you need to be more than just a good team to go far into the postseason. The likes of the Clippers, Rockets and Grizzlies all have better records against their Western Conference opponents than Portland.
Potential first-round matchups are important to this team as well. A team like the Grizzlies could have enough to bully them inside and send them packing early. You have to beat the best to be the best though. On the plus side, should Aldridge re-sign with this team, they look primed for some more runs at a title.
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