Trail Blazers’ magic number and their magic leader, Damian Lillard
The Spurs lost to the Lakers Wednesday night, which is good news for the Blazers, who are nursing injuries to three of their most important players.
There were a lot of questions surrounding the Blazers after they lost to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
Is this team ready for the playoffs?
How bad is Damian Lillard’s ankle injury, and how long will he be sidelined?
Will the Blazers ever shoot better than 30 percent from three again?
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And what’s up with the Blazers’ defense? Can it function without Ed Davis and Maurice Harkless?
Blazers and the Playoffs
Portland will likely be without Lillard against the Rockets Thursday. And we know they’ll be without Davis and Harkless.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that pieces are falling into place for the Blazers — starting with the Los Angeles Lakers’ overtime victory against the San Antonio Spurs.
This puts some more distance between Portland and San Antonio, and it means that the Blazers’ paths to securing home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs is one step closer.
The Trail Blazers can clinch the Northwest division title tonight with a win and a Utah loss. Any win in their remaining four games ensures Portland will have homecourt advantage in the first round.
— Casey Holdahl (@CHold) April 5, 2018
Portland can also put a stranglehold on the third seed in the Western Conference with a simple formula: Beat Utah.
All Portland has to do to secure the 3 seed is ... beat Utah next Wednesday at home. That’s it. #RipCity
— Holy Backboard || Start Shaedon Sharpe (@HolyBackboard) April 5, 2018
Long story short: Things are shaping up well for the Portland Trail Blazers. Of course, the easiest thing to do is to win their games and not worry about what other teams are doing. But with injuries to three key players, it sure would be helpful if the Blazers could rest some of those players without having to worry about winning regular season games.
Damian Lillard
The rest of NBA Nation has started to catch onto what those of us here in Rip City already know: Damian Lillard is an All NBA-caliber player.
There are a couple of good pieces on Dame up now at Sports Illustrated’s The Crossover, and we recommend them both.
Next: Loss in Memphis just a bump on the road to awesome
The first, by Lee Jenkins, delves into the history of “Lillard Time” (or “Dame Time,” if you prefer). Looks like the origins of the Lillard legend go back quite a long ways.
And there’s another quote from Lillard expressing — once again — his desire to win in Portland.
Lillard is quoted as saying:
"“I would like to win a championship as bad as anybody, but because of who I am, I’d get a lot more satisfaction if I got it the hard way. If I can’t figure it out here and I never win one, I can live with the effort I put into it. I can live with it maybe not happening for me. I’m going to roll with this team regardless of what people may feel about our chances. I’m going to live and die with this.”"
The second piece, an evenhanded and incisive piece by Andrew Sharp, examines the impact Lillard is having on the NBA fan base, which is finally beginning to understand his greatness.
Sharp writes:
"If Lillard played on the East Coast and more basketball fans were watching some of these Portland games unfold in real time, there would be magazine covers, tattoos, action figures, and Lillard would be on the side of buildings. We’d be in the middle of a full-blown revolution."
Welcome to the revolution, America. What took you so long?