The Portland Trail Blazers have clearly done everything they could to make certain that last year’s postseason horror story – in which they were swept in the opening round of the playoffs by their lower-seeded opponent – would not end up having a sequel.
Taking on a familiar Western Conference nemesis, who employs both a former league MVP and a current league MVP candidate, the Trail Blazers have successfully protected their home court advantage in the opening round of the 2018-2019 Western Conference Playoffs, as they now head out to the Midwest with a 2-0 series lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While many people around the NBA believed Portland was ripe for yet another upset, given that they’d seemingly be playing against a team who would feature the two best players on the court in Paul George and Russell Westbrook, it’s been the dynamic duo of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum that have buoyed the Trail Blazers to their current series lead.
In Game 1, the Trail Blazers took it Oklahoma City; after taking an 8-5 lead just under two-and-a-half minutes into the game, Portland never trailed in the contest again. While the Thunder did cut a one time 18-point deficit down to just one point with 2:44 left in the game, Lillard’s incredible fallaway three-pointer represented the proverbial nail in the coffin, as Portland would go on to hit their free throws to secure the 104-99 win.
But Game 2 featured its own sense of theatricality, but in a far different manner. Coming up on halfway through the second quarter, the Trail Blazers trailed the Thunder by nine points. But over the course of the next two quarters, Portland turned that nine-point deficit into 17-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. The Trail Blazers would go on to win that game by a 114-94 score, giving them a crazy 20-point margin of victory.
Lillard, who is likely battling Westbrook for one of the two spots on the All-NBA Second Team for this season, has demonstrably outplayed his MVP-winning counterpart in this series, leading Westbrook to publicly declare that he must play better if the Thunder are to have a chance at even making this series competitive.
Lillard has scored 30 and 29 points in Games 1 and 2 respectively, but everyone knows that he’s one of the most gifted offensive players in the league. What most people — outside of the Pacific Northwest, anyway — might be most surprised about is his defensive performances in both games. Westbrook’s 24 points on 47.1% shooting in Game 1 represents a solid day’s work, but in Game 2, Lillard held Westbrook to a paltry 25% shoot (he went 5-20 from the field), and a grand total of 14 points.
And like any good tag-team partner, McCollum has more than held up his own end of the bargain. Scoring 57 points combined in Portland’s two wins (alongside Lillard’s 59 points), the sharpshooting off-guard is connecting on almost 43% of his three-point attempts (going 6 for 14 over the two wins).
While Paul George himself is averaging 26.5 points per game in this series, he hasn’t come close to helping the Thunder deliver the same “1-2 punch” impact that the Trail Blazers have been able to land.
Can the Trail Blazers make it three in a row in this series? We’ll find out this Friday, April 19th, at 6:30pm PST.
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