No one expected the Portland Trail Blazers to make the NBA playoffs after losing four of last season’s five starters. And yet, here they are, in the postseason, all notched up with the Los Angeles Clippers in their best-of-seven series, at two games apiece, with a real chance to be more than a low-level steppingstone.
Not that the Blazers ever expected themselves to be an easy undertaking just because they aren’t supposed to be here, in the playoffs, battling perceived powerhouses. They have expected more from themselves all along and are getting it—and they’re using the revolving door of doubt to which they’ve been subject to fuel their push.
As Ed Davis and Damian Lillard said, per Blazers.com’s Casey Holdahl:
The same people who said that are the same people who predicted us to be last, so that really doesn’t mean nothing to us,” said Ed Davis. “We could use it as motivation, but this late in the year, with what we’ve got at stake, we don’t really need bulletin board material. We’re motivated enough. People gonna talk man — that’s their job — but we just focus on us and we come ready to play.”
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“We don’t care what they say,” said Damian Lillard. “They’re they. They didn’t expect us to make the playoffs, so why would they expect us to come in the playoffs and beat the Clippers? That’s just the way it is, they expect the Clippers to be that team that advances. We’ve heard the talk, we’ve watched TV and seen them talking about the second round series that isn’t here yet, but we stayed here. We know that they still have a series with us. I said before the series started that it’s not going to be easy, we not going to come out here and lay down and say, ‘Hey, we wasn’t supposed to make it but we did.’ We’re here to compete, we’re here to win and that hasn’t stopped.”
Most, including yours truly, had the Blazers contending for the worst record in the Western Conference. So that they made the playoffs at all is an accomplishment—enough to render this season an immense success.
But the Blazers aren’t just gunning for more; they are in a position to do more.
With Chris Paul likely done for the playoffs and Blake Griffin banged up, the Blazers are now borderline favorites to win that series and advance into the second round. Once there, they will meet a Golden State Warriors team that, in all likelihood, won’t have Stephen Curry.
Think about this: There is a totally feasible scenario in which the Blazers earn a Western Conference Finals bid. It will have taken a couple of catastrophic injuries to get them there, and nothing is guaranteed, but it’s at least possible. And that’s crazy.
Which, frankly, is fitting.
Because these Blazers traffic in the unexpected.
