3. Portland Trail Blazers – 6. Oklahoma City Thunder
Regular Season Series: Thunder 4-0
Amid all the craziness in the final two days of the NBA regular season that led to the minuscule chance that Houston would drop to the four seed instead of the Blazers to take on Utah becoming reality, the team that emerged the most victorious was without a doubt the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Sure, the sixth seed isn’t normally anything to write home about, but in the closely contested West, it’s nothing to scoff at or count out. And not only that, but the Thunder may have landed the most fortuitous first-round matchup and now have the easiest path imaginable to the Western Conference Finals. Not only are they facing a Portland team that is without their starting center Jusuf Nurkic, but they’re now on the opposite side of the bracket from Houston, Golden State and Utah.
In other words, if Oklahoma City wins in the first round, they’ll go on to play either Denver or San Antonio, both of which are quite beatable, before facing a truly daunting force in the Western Conference Finals. I have a feeling they’ll ultimately land exactly there.
But OKC has been plagued by inconsistency and poor decision making the past couple seasons. If those issues raise their ugly heads in the postseason, they could very well fall short. Even though the Blazers will desperately miss Nurkic and they lost 4-0 to the Thunder in the regular season, they’re still an exceptional team. And you can bet that Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and the rest of the crew will be ready to put up a heck of a fight against the Thunder.
Then again, Portland was in this same position as the three-seed a year ago at full strength and against a six-seeded team that many felt they matched up better against in the New Orleans Pelicans. This Thunder team has given Terry Stotts’ crew fits and I have a feeling we’ll see more of the same, especially without Nurkic to help protect the rim and hold prolific big-man Steven Adams at bay.
When all is said and done, I believe Russell Westbrook, Paul George and the rest of the Thunder will be too much for a wounded Portland team to handle, sending them packing in the first round as a three-seed for the second straight season.
Prediction: Thunder in 5