Portland Trail Blazers: Pelicans game could set tone for possible playoff matchup

The Portland Trail Blazers are set to face a New Orleans Pelicans team they’ve struggled with all season. Could this be a first round series preview?

The Portland Trail Blazers have a fairly challenging schedule to close out the 2017-18 regular season. It features six matchups against teams still in the Western Conference playoff hunt. Those opponents hold a collective .533 winning percentage.

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of those opponents. They host Portland Tuesday night in the final matchup of the regular season between these two teams. It is the Blazers’ second game of a three-game road trip.

Portland is third in the Western Conference with a 45-28 record. Meanwhile, New Orleans is fifth at 43-31. The Pelicans are tied with the San Antonio Spurs, but hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them, maintaining a 2-1 series advantage.

With their records so close and the race for spots 3-8 so fluid, there is still a good chance the Blazers and Pelicans could meet in a first round playoff matchup. However, much like the Spurs, Portland has had its troubles facing the Pelicans this season. New Orleans currently holds the 2-1 advantage in the series heading into Tuesday’s game.

The Blazers managed to win the first game of the series, 103-93, on Oct. 24, 2017 at Moda Center. Anthony Davis went down with a left knee injury five minutes into the game, but New Orleans played tough in his absence. They held a 73-71 lead after three quarters, but Portland rallied back with a 32-20 fourth quarter to secure the victory.

C.J. McCollum led Portland with 23 points while Damian Lillard had 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins paced the Pelicans with 39 points and 13 rebounds, both game-highs. Jrue Holiday chipped in 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

The two combatants met again in Portland on Dec. 2, 2017. The Pelicans got their revenge, winning 123-116. Davis was out completely this time, suffering a left groin injury the previous night against the Utah Jazz.

DeMarcus Cousins stepped up again on this night, delivering 38 points and eight rebounds in the win. He helped the Pelicans outscore the Blazers 72-49 through the second and third quarters. Portland tried to battle back in the fourth, but ultimately fell short. Lillard paced Portland with 29 points on that night.

The Pelicans managed to take the series lead in their third meeting with a 119-113 victory on Jan. 12 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. A fully healthy Anthony Davis led all scorers with 36 points while chipping in nine rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins also had a big night, putting up 24 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists. Jrue Holiday added 25 points and six assists.

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Lillard and McCollum both had 23 points each. Al-Farouq Aminu finished with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. The Blazers’ starters accounted for 101 of the team’s 113 total points on the evening.

Since then, the Blazers have grown as a team. Portland fell to 22-20 with the Jan. 12 loss, but has gone on a 23-8 surge in the interim. The offense has pushed the Blazers into another gear as the team has trusted each other more. Their defense has also remained fairly consistent throughout, still among the league’s top 10.

Meanwhile, the Pelicans have had to endure a couple of major changes since mid-January. DeMarcus Cousins went down with a ruptured left Achilles tendon in the final seconds of a Jan. 26 win over the Houston Rockets. He had surgery on Jan. 31 and was ruled out for the rest of the season.

On Feb. 1, the Pelicans acquired Nikola Mirotic and a 2018 second round draft pick from the Chicago Bulls for Tony Allen, Omer Asik and Jameer Nelson. While Mirotic doesn’t possess the versatility and strength of Cousins, he can still be an effective floor-spacer within New Orleans’ offense.

In order to beat the Pelicans, Portland will have to focus on containing Anthony Davis. That task is obviously easier said than done. Davis is averaging 31.0 points, 12.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game since Jan. 28, the game after Cousins’ injury.

However, the Blazers could also hold the advantage if they force New Orleans out to the perimeter. The Pelicans have shot 34.9 percent from beyond the arc since Jan. 28, seventh-worst in the NBA over that span. In contrast, Portland is shooting 37.0 percent from 3-point range over that same time-span, 13th-best in the league.

The Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Pelicans will face off Tuesday night in a game with sizable playoff implications. Both teams are led by a player that is producing at MVP-caliber levels, while their teammates are also making big contributions.

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These two teams will definitely close out their season series with a competitive matchup. However, don’t be surprised if these two meet again nearly three weeks from now.