Portland Trail Blazers Take Charge Of Series Against The Clippers
By Duncan Smith
The Portland Trail Blazers took a 3-2 lead in their first-round playoff series against the injury-depleted Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday in L.A.
The 2015-16 season has been quite a ride for the Portland Trail Blazers. Written off as Western Conference fodder to start the season after the departure of four of last season’s five starters, the Blazers started off slowly, with a 15-24 record 39 games into the season.
Things changed with a 115-110 home victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 10. Over the final 43 games of the season, the Blazers posted the sixth-best record in the NBA, going a stunning 29-14. That surge earned them not just a playoff spot with a 44-38 record, but it got the Blazers the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoff picture.
That fifth spot spared them certain doom against the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder in the bottom three playoff spots,and it earned them a first-round playoff matchup against the perennially snake-bitten Los Angeles Clippers.
Already the most vulnerable among the top four West seeds, the Clippers were struck with catastrophic injuries in Game 4 of this playoff series on Monday night in Portland.
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Chris Paul of the Clippers is out indefinitely with a right hand fracture that should keep him off the floor for four to six weeks, which would mean he wouldn’t return until at least the Western Conference Finals, and Blake Griffin is out for the rest of the playoffs, leaving center DeAndre Jordan and a skeleton crew on the floor for the Clippers against the Blazers.
On Wednesday night, the Blazers overcame a slow start and a 50-42 second quarter deficit to dismantle the feisty Clippers by a 98-84 margin to take a critical 3-2 series lead going back to the Moda Center in Portland.
The Trail Blazers have won three consecutive playoff games for the first time since the First Round against Dallas in 2003.
— Trail Blazers PR (@TrailBlazersPR) April 28, 2016
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The plucky Blazers have escalated expectations since around the middle of February, when the basketball world took note of the surging team, and the goalposts have been moved repeatedly. Once just making the playoffs was more than a dream, which quickly changed to getting out of eighth place and supposedly settled in on earning fifth.
That alone was a shocking achievement, but the goalposts have moved once again. The Blazers have a death grip on this series and the Clippers with their top-end talent sidelined, and anything short of a series win will now be a big disappointment.
There’s a limping giant in the Blazers’ future, should they be able to seal the deal against the Clippers. The Golden State Warriors wrapped up their first-round series against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night to nobody’s surprise, but these Warriors are hurt too.
Presumptive NBA MVP Stephen Curry is expected to be out at least two weeks with a Grade 1 MCL sprain, which would most likely encompass the first four games of the Western Conference semifinals.
That means that the Blazers will probably get at least four games with the Warriors where they don’t have to deal with the transcendent Curry if they take care of business against the Clippers quickly and don’t let the series go to seven games.
In the final 72 minutes of that series after Steph Curry hurt his knee, the Warriors outscored the Rockets by 60 points.
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) April 28, 2016
As Zach Harper explains above, with or without Curry, the Warriors are a devastating force. The Blazers aren’t the Houston Rockets though.
Where the Rockets had dysfunction, the Blazers execute and play with effort and heart. By all accounts, the Rockets don’t like playing together and were probably ready for the offseason long before their season finally came to an end.
No Rocket players showing up for media session tonight. Most have already vacated the locker room. Shocking developments, I know.
— Shohei Ohtani Stan Account (@AndyKHLiu) April 28, 2016
Even without Curry, the Warriors will be massive favorites against the upstart Blazers, but the Warriors will have less margin for error. Another injury and they could be in deeper trouble than anticipated, and a setback in Curry’s recovery could be a real problem for the Dubs.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s up-to-date NBA projections, the Blazers are 73 percent favorites to beat the Clippers and move on to the Western Conference semifinals against Golden State. Of course, they’re only given a 6 percent chance to move on to the Western Conference Finals, but first things first.
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One thing is for sure, the Blazers have come a long way since those cold dark early January days when halfway into the season they were widely accepted as one of the worst teams in the NBA. Now they’re one win away from a second round date with the defending champs.