Given the narrative surrounding the Portland Trail Blazers as a perennial “one and done” playoff team, it is hard to remember that they were a favorite in last year's first-round series against the New Orleans Pelicans. But the Trail Blazers meekly bowed out to New Orleans in four games, a resounding sweep that still burns inside of Portland star point guard Damian Lillard.
Lillard spoke to Jason Quick of The Athletic about that series and why this year will be different, implicitly suggesting last year's depressing postseason flameout was better for his team than anyone on the outside could realize.
“We are the team that went through what we went through last year, everybody else just witnessed it,” Lillard said. “Y’all didn’t have to lose. We had to lose. We got embarrassed, y’all didn’t get embarrassed. Everybody else didn’t go through what we went through. We experienced it.”
C.J. McCollum, healthy entering the playoffs despite playing in just two games since suffering a sprained knee on March 19th, also believes the Blazers are better off today for being swept by the Pelicans last season.
“That’s a unique learning experience: getting swept, having home-court advantage, losing to a lower seed than you,” McCollum said. “It gives you a different perspective; it helps build character.”
Portland, which will be playing without injured center Jusuf Nurkic, enters the 2019 playoffs as the third seed in the Western Conference, and will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. The Thunder won all four meetings between the teams during the regular season, though each game was hotly contested both on the scoreboard and on the floor, with tempers flaring on multiple occasions.
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