The Golden State Warriors hold the best chance to get through their matchup in the first round of the NBA playoffs, but no matter how much they're favored, a now experienced veteran team knows better than to take the Portland Trail Blazers lightly.

“Man, this the NBA,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant told ESPN's Chris Haynes in light of their odds to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. “We don't look at paper, we don't look at who's the underdog, we don't look at none of that stuff. We know that you can be beaten any night.”

“These guys are NBA players. It's hard as hell to be an NBA player. It's hard. It's hard to be a playoff team. One through eight, it's hard. No matter how easy people think it is, it's hard to be Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum or Noah Vonleh. It's hard as s*** to be that, and we know how tough that is.”

Golden State swept Portland 4-0 in the regular season, but Rip City has bolstered its troops with the addition of center Jusuf Nurkic, whose status for the series is questionable with a leg fracture.

The Blazers are 7-3 during the last 10 games of the regular season and have been able to find their identity right before the start of the playoffs, making them a dangerous foe despite the BPI odds.

“That doesn't mean anything,” Draymond Green said of the odds. “We didn't see that [percentage]. You saw it.”

“That's the first time I heard of it, from you,” he said. “So, that tells you that we don't talk about stuff like that. We know this team. They're not a pushover. So, we know we have to go out there and handle our business no matter if we're projected to win or whatever everybody else says, we still have to go out there and play.”

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