PORTLAND — In a playoff series sure to be wrought with bad blood, there’s no pressure on the Trail Blazers, so says Damian Lillard.
“We been the underdogs from jump,” Lillard said. “There’s no pressure on us. I’ve already seen some people talking about the Clippers and Warriors in the second round. So, there’s no pressure on us we just have to go out there and play.”
They opened as six-point underdogs and ESPN Stats & Info gave the Blazers a whopping 18 percent chance to beat the Los Angeles Clippers in the series, the highest chance of any lower seed.
The Blazers are indeed picking up a familiar role. Although the Clippers present the Blazers with their most winnable match-up, it still allows them to comfortably cling to the identity that has provided them the fuel for success.
It would be lazy to think that just that alone will help the Blazers win this series.
These two teams played each other pretty evenly in the regular season. Considering the odd nature of some of the games including a stomach bug for Damian Lillard, the roster snafu that kept CJ McCollum on the inactive list and Blake Griffin’s injury troubles, you’d think it might be hard for either team to prepare.
But the Blazers know what they’ll be up against.
“They got some athletic bigs who hedge hard and do different things defensively,” McCollum said. “And they execute well out of timeouts.”
The Blazers are careful not to call their angst with the Clippers a rivalry just yet, a sign of respect to a team that’s won a first round playoff series in three out of the last four seasons.
Although Griffin has struggled in his immediate return to injury, the Clippers are still very dangerous and Griffin could find his rhythm anytime.
One subtext of this series is the clash in styles between the two teams with both teams changing their identity near the finish line.
The Blazers have found success with small ball by moving Al-Farouq Aminu to power forward and slotting Moe Harkless into the starting line-up while the Clippers sport a bigger, more traditional look with Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
Chris Paul and JJ Redick have each had career years and although veteran Paul Pierce struggled down the stretch with injury, he and veteran Jamal Crawford are the type of vets who make the small plays to win playoff games.
It’s a tough task, but the Blazers know what they have to do to give themselves a chance to prove the doubters wrong again.
“Taking away what they do best, obviously Blake and DeAndre, Chris Paul, JJ Redick,” the Blazers’ Allen Crabbe said about facing the Clippers. “Just limit all of them from having good games. Once we do that I feel like we have a shot.”
