The Portland Trail Blazers suffered perhaps the worst of the many failures they've experienced in recent postseasons, quickly erased from postseason contention by the lower-seeded New Orleans Pelicans after fighting to get the No. 3 seed in the ultra-competitive West. The backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were futile throughout the series, proving not enough to handle the tests that the postseason had for them, a sign that moves needed to be made in Rip City.
Yet the Blazers made very few moves in the offseason, keeping their center Jusuf Nurkic and refusing to trade away their All-Star backcourt despite the rumors and the poor all-around showing when it counted the most.
“The sweep made us stronger,” McCollum told ESPN's Zach Lowe. “We didn't point fingers. There's nothing for us to be afraid of, because the worst has already happened.”
Lillard and McCollum took the lead by accountability, putting the weight of a painful elimination on their shoulders, and keeping the rest of their teammates from pointing fingers or battling for minutes due to the others' failures — something that can prove a recipe for disaster.
“We didn't fracture because we knew we were better than how we played,” said Lillard. “Nobody said, ‘Oh, so-and-so, you didn't do that.' We got our ass whooped. We are sharper because of it. You get back to work. You show that you are a better team than that.”
The Blazers have been rewarded with the top spot in the Western Conference and a renewed chance to make it right for late owner Paul Allen after winning seven of their last 10 games.
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