NBA legend and TNT host Charles Barkley recently said that if the Portland Trail Blazers made the playoffs, they would beat the Lakers in the first round.
We all know who Charles Barkley is. The NBA legend and Hall of Fame Power-Forward has been on our screens for NBA on TNT for many years. He hasn’t always been the biggest fan of the Portland Trail Blazers, but recently he has come out in support of them.
Barkley proclaimed this week before the NBA’s first scrimmages in the bubble, that if the Blazers made the NBA playoffs, they would beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round.
Chuck is back with another bold prediction 👀 pic.twitter.com/LpUTdD8CcH
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 17, 2020
This is probably an unpopular opinion everywhere except for Portland. Yahoo NBA Insider and big Damian Lillard supporter Chris Haynes had a similar conclusion. Still, the conventional wisdom seems to be that the Lakers would roll the Blazers in the first round.
The Lakers are without their main point of attack defender Avery Bradley, who made himself unavailable for the NBA’s due to family reasons. He would have been marking Lillard in any potential playoff matchup. But the Lakers still have Alex Caruso, Danny Green, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as strong guard defenders.
Barkley’s argument has merit. The return of Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins added to the strong guard pairing of CJ McCollum and Lillard means that this team is a playoff contender now. The hardest thing though about any matchup with the Lakers though, is the lack of capable wing and forward defenders. Can Collins and Carmelo Anthony defend LeBron James and Anthony Davis?
The speed and versatility of both Davis and LeBron mean you need size and speed at the three and four, which the Blazers have neither. The unavailability of Trevor Ariza is a tough pill to swallow for fans.
The Blazer’s best chance at beating the Lakers is to wall off the rim with Collins, Nurkic, and Whiteside, and then don’t let the Lakers play in transition. Then on the other end, McCollum and Lillard need to go berserk.
We still appreciate the love from Barkley, but the Blazers will need to not only win a large proportion of the regular-season games but lock in a style of play on both ends that will match them up well with the Lakers.
The upcoming scrimmages will be the first chance for fans to see our complete squad.