Subscribe Feed (RSS)If the season ends the way the standings are right now, the Trail Blazers would open the first round of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets, with Houston having the homecourt advantage.
Is that the team you want to play? I know, you’d rather play Memphis — but let’s be realistic. Of the other seven West playoff teams, who’s the best matchup for the Trail Blazers and why? Here’s your chance to tell the world.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, NBA playoffs, Portland Trail Blazers
Of any team, Utah. They aren’t playing with much chemistry right now and are pretty average on the road.
In terms of realistic seeding, I’d like to play Houston.
I don’t know, but I would kinda want them to play the Lakers. I mean, I’m not expecting them to go far, and if they did beat the Lakers we’d have beaten the best in the west and the rest of the playoffs and the next years would be eaiser at handling the pressure. Plus I mean come on, the Lakers bring out the best in the Blazers, and it gives them a chance to beat Kobe & the Kobettes atleast 3 more times at the RG, with crowd chanting BEAT LA! BEAT LA! That’s possible, and if they did manage to steal one at the Staples Center, whew, watch-out LA. So yeah I’d say the Lakers and then the Mavericks,Nuggets, and Rockets in that order.
Note how I picked all the teams with out a good or quick point guard who knows how to penetrate.
Hi Dwight,
I’d say Houston. Have a good week!!
Houston the first round chokers! Like Rick A , but I think the TB can continue the first round woes of the Rockets. Young, Excited, No Pressure. Just the kind of factors a chocker like Houston doesn’t want to deal with. You said the play-offs are a whole new season so the TB record during the regular season won’t matter. I would like to see the TB come out and punch them in the mouth on the 5th to give them something to think about.
Robert
I gotta say Denver…I think with our depth we match up with them better than other teams like Houston.
What’s the goal?
Learning how to take on the big kids in a series? L.A.
Extending the season by 2-3 more weeks? Houston.
Frankly, I’d rather Nate and the team learned how to prepare for a series against a much better opponent than learning how to linger in the playoffs by beating a marginally better team.
I’d rather face Houston than Denver, L*A or the Spurs. Brooks is a decent PG, but he’s not on the same level as the other WC playmakers (yet) And we know the TBs struggle with penetrators
Save the Fakers for round 2…
I think we would have the best chance against Houston. With the right game plan they would be easier to defeat.
I’d love to face a New Orleans Hornets team without Tyson Chandler. I think they are a mentally fragile team that is looking for a reason to unravel.
And even if Chandler returns full strength, he can be neutralized by Pryz/Oden.
Aldridge plays West to a draw. Roy and Paul run wild respectively. And our superior depth beats them.
By contrast, Houston is a tempting matchup, but their veteran savvy combined with their toughness (Artest, Scola, Battier will eat the Blazers alive) scares me a lot.
The Rockets are a MUCH different team (much better) without Tracy McGrady.
I think a realistic goal is to figure out how to win a game on the road against one of the teams. We have only beaten NO so far on their own court – and that was when Chris Paul went down (we were getting blown out before that).
I don’t think it matters who we play. If it was someone like the Lakers – and we figure out how to win at the Staples Center – then that will be a big accomplishment.
This post season is all about gaining experience. It would be fantastic to win the first series. It would also be good to lose to the Lakers so you understand what you are dealing with. If we are going to lose in the first round – I think I would rather lose to the Lakers and anyone else.
Complicated for sure. There is a part of me that wonders if we can be the team that dominated LA and nearly beat Cleveland ON THE ROAD when focused on a playoff series… and perhaps leverage our youthful energy and WIN THE CHAMPIONSIHP!! What a story that would be. This team is growing up fast.
Ideally we play as the 6th seed, beat Houston (3rd) in the first round, get SA in the 2nd round (better chance to beat them than the l*kers) then we’re battle tested by the WCF, our confidence will be up and we can take on the K*obinaries knowing that we can beat them. All we’d need is ONE in LA and the RG would carry us to the promised land against the LeBrons….
I would want Dallas, except that they keep beating us….
I’m no Houston expert but while that could go great, I could see that team being very unpredictable and perhaps amazing….but probably not.
New Orleans would be good….
To those who want us to face LA, if we finish 4 or 5 and win that’s who we’d see in the second round. I think this team needs experience WINNING a series. They can get their experience losing to LA in the second round (or otherwise as we all secretly hope).
There is more value to winning a series than just “extending the season for another 2-3 weeks” or whatever somebody said….
Boy, looking at the seedings it’s an uphill battle anyway you look at it.
I’d say Houston is the team we’d want to play here’s why.
First, they haven’t made it out of the first round in a long time, and have been really dissapointing in the playoffs the last few seasons. Second, they’re playing with a couple of PG’s that don’t have much NBA experience let alone playoff experience. Can as good as Aaron Brooks is, can he handle the pressure? Third, I never bet on crazy, and Ron Artest is crazy. Great player, but if you’re a Rocket fan can you trust Artest to get you into the second round?
I think the Blazers need homecourt to advance, but they’d definitely have a punchers chance against the shakey Rockets.
San Antonio. The Spurs are getting older and won’t hurt the Blazers in transition as much as some of the other teams will. The teams play a similar style, but Portland has the better athletes, especially off the bench. Also, the Blazers must have a little confidence in their ability to compete in San Antonio – last time there, it took a huge game by Parker to finish the Blazers off in the fourth quarter.
Dallas scares me the least – but I say let’s take out LA before Bynum is healthy.
BTW- Did you notice that Hollinger now has the Blazers playoff chances at 100%. I’ve been waiting a while to see that.
Utah….
I just got my Playoff Ticket Confirmation email 9 minutes ago, with instructions on picking up my tickets at the Lakers game.
Playing the Mavericks could be a disaster since they are the one team that has consistently shut down Portland in all three meetings this season. I like New Orleans and Houston, because they are both perpetually vulnerable to injuries. Playing the spurs seems quite possible, and although the matchup with Duncan always seems to bring the best out of Aldridge, you would have to be crazy to want to play the team with Ginobili-Duncan-Parker in a Game 6 or 7. So I’d say it’s more of a question of avoiding Denver, Dallas, and San Antonio, and hoping for a Utah, Houston, or New Orleans. LA is gonna steamroll everyone.
How does that work anyway? I mean, they probably won’t know when the games are by then, right? Seems a bit premature all around, but I was still excited to get that email confirming my seats because I only have a half season.
BTW, I’m hoping for NO or Houston, in that order.
Houston, slightly edging out Denver. We tend to get killed by teams that maximize their perimeter offense. Houston isn’t so scary in that dept without TMac.
Denver or Utah. The Jazz have seemed out of sorts all year, and though Billups makes Denver more of a threat, I still think the Blazers can beat them.
Frankly, I want no part of Houston – they’ve been rolling without Tracy and have two Brandon-stoppers in Artest and Battier. We generally haven’t played well this year when teams can lock Brandon up, and the Rockets are good at stopping teams that lean heavily on a single player.
Some of you are straight crazy. You want to play the Lakers in the first round? Call me crazy but isn’t the goal to go as far as you can in the playoffs? Why wish for a first round exit to the best team in the West? I’m not saying we should be over confident, but I can’t believe some of you are going into this with the “who’s the best team to lost to attitude.”
this is easy!! The Hornets!!! with the rockets at a close second
Well of course mt dream would be to have the Blazers steal the first game in Los Angeles and then beat the crap out of them in Portland.
I have watched every game between these two teams for alot of years now. Portland plays them better than any other team.The 2000 team was ever so close.Then the team wasn’t good enough for several years.I believe the current team could beat them for one reason.
The Rose Garden.
I am getting ahead of my self in my dreams.
I hope Portland gets any team they can knock off on the opponents court to open the series.
I honestly believe the Rose Garden will be the 6th man.
Lakers.
Nothing to lose, everything to gain — and its a great matchup.
And I’m a Laker fan, I know!
I Have changed my views on this…
I want us to play the Lakers of the Spurs. I want us to play the best and gain some experience. The spurs have the guys with multiple rings and a respected coach. LA has Kobe and Phil jackson. I want guys like Roy, Aldridge, and Oden to see how the greats play in the playoffs. I want this team to see how the oppossing coaches strategizeto defend them, and exploit their weaknesses
If the goal this year is to attain some experience, let’s go after the best and give it our all. Moreover, we can learn alot from players and coach’s who have won it all
Ideally the Hornets. They are not very deep and do not have the size to match up with Portland inside. They will get beat up over a seven game series and Portland I believe would have a decent chance of wearing them out. Chris Paul cannot do it all himself, and Aldridge can handle West.
Second most ideal would be Houston, because the Jazz are just coming back full strength and have a strong roster, whereas Houston seems to have over-achieved all season and they do have, as another poster put it, a “crazy” who is likely to self destruct at any time.
All things considered — the Blazers are peaking right now. In some ways, at least. Yeah, playing the Lakers would ensure a first round exit, as well at least a few blow-outs games not in our favor. But I think for getting benefit out of it two years down the road, I want the Lakers.
But then again there’s gotta be something gained from winning a series against ANY opponent in terms of lessons, confidence, yadda.
I honestly don’t care as long as I get to see some good close and scrappy games.
Lakers – We would lose in 6 or less
Spurs – We would lose in 6
Nuggets – We can beat Denver in 6 or 7
Rockets – We would lose in 6 or 7
Utah – We could win in 6 or 7
Hornets – We would lose in 6. We have no answer for Paul, he is a master of the pick and roll and we cannot defend him the P&R
Dallas – We could win in 6
I’m a stats guy much more than a matchups guy. Therefore, I’d rather play one of the teams with weak efficiency differentials (points per 100 possessions – points allowed per 100). The differentials for West teams are:
Lakers +8.1
Blazers +4.8
Rockets +4.4
Spurs +4.3
Jazz +3.9
Nuggets +3.4
Hornets +2.7
Suns +1.9
Mavericks +1.2
Give me the Nuggets or the Hornets.