The West now goes through LA again as Lakers take down Jazz to clinch #1 seed.
Man, who'd imagine 10 years later they're back on top again. Davis putting up 42/12 tonight.
Took them embarrassingly long to rebuild, and IMO they’ve built a team that has seriously big weaknesses. Excited to see them get bounced in the playoffs
^^^inb4 Portland sneaks in as the eighth seed and takes them down in the first round.
I sure hope so. Portland needs to start winning games while Memphis needs to lose out
Memphis haven't won yet, so it’s not impossible. I think Dame and CJ could absolutely scorch LA
Dame and CJ couldn't get past AD and the Pels in the 1st round a couple years ago. Dame will get his numbers but whether that equates to winning playoff games is a different story. Blazers will need someone else to step up to have a chance to get by the Lakers.
Why focus on a bad series from 2 years ago?
Lillard had a terrible series, worst playoff performance of his career. Never broke 20 points. Shot 35% from the field and 30% from 3 (for 41.5% eFG%) with 4 turnovers a game.
I believe largely due to Jrue Holiday playing great D on him.But then they went to the WCF last year without their 3rd best player. Why not focus on that?
Lillard was less than stellar against the Warriors, mainly guarded by Klay (22.3ppg, 8.5apg with 4.5 turnoves, 47% eFG%) but at least he got them there (playing great against the Thunder and with some big games against the Nuggets though McCollum was probably better that series).
The Lakers have some bigger, capable defenders in Caldwell-Pope and Green, but Lillard's also put up 48, 31, 29 on them this year too.
I don't know what the odds are (not great), but they have the best shot of any #8 seed in a long time of taking out a #1, especially with Nurkic back.