Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking prospective first-round opponents

5. Portland Trail Blazers

You could say the Blazers are better than their 29-37 record indicates. You could say they are potentially the most dangerous No. 8 seed the West has seen since Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks took the eventual NBA champion Spurs seven games in the 2014 first round.

Either claim would be true.

The main reason for that is Damian Lillard. The five-time All-Star point guard is averaging a career-best 28.9 points and 7.8 assists per game this season. He’s shooting a career-high 45.7 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from 3-point range.

While the Blazers have struggled, Lillard is still the same crunch-time assassin he’s always been. He’s the same guy who eliminated the star-studded Thunder with a series-winning buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the 2019 playoffs; the same guy who eliminated the star-studded Rockets in his first career playoff series with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the 2014 playoffs.

In three games against the Lakers this season, Lillard averaged 36.0 points and 9.0 assists while the Blazers went 1-2. The lone victory came on Jan. 31, in one of the Lakers’ biggest games of the year — their first home game since Kobe Bryant’s death. Lillard scored 48 points in Portland’s upset win, barely missing a triple-double with 10 assists and nine rebounds.

The Blazers have a good No. 2 scorer in shooting guard C.J. McCollum (22.5 points per game), and Carmelo Anthony (15.3 points) provides another go-to clutch option.

Portland can potentially hold their own with L.A.’s talented bigs. The Blazers have a proven commodity in center Hassan Whiteside (16.3 points, 14.2 rebounds, 3.1 blocks), and bigs Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins could return from injuries whenever the league resumes play.

Lillard is the key here, however. He is good enough to take command of a series. When he goes into legend mode, no one wants to face Portland in the playoffs.