The Portland Trail Blazers may have dropped Game 3 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 120-108 on Friday night, but they are still in control, as they hold a 2-1 lead heading into Game 4.
The Blazers looked fantastic in the first two games of this series, beating the Thunder in all facets of the game to hold serve at home.
Of course, Russell Westbrook and Co. flipped the script in Game 3, putting forth a surprising efficient 33-point performance in which he made 11 of his 22 field-goal attempts and went 4-of-6 from three-point range. He also added 11 assists and five rebounds.
The question is, can Westbrook and Oklahoma City do that on a consistent basis?
Based on what we have seen from Westbrook throughout his career, it seems hard to put a saddle on OKC just because of one Game 3 victory, and even though I did pick the Thunder to win this series, the smart money seems to be on Portland recovering.
So, what exactly is the Blazers' playoff ceiling? Are they, at best, a second-round exit? Or does this team seriously have the potential to make a run to the Western Conference Finals?
We know that Charles Barkley thinks Portland will get all the way to the finals, but, uh, yeah; that isn't going to happen.
But can the Blazers at least advance to the series before that?
Let me just say this: when Jusuf Nurkic suffered his gruesome broken leg injury last month, I had Portland left for dead. Nurkic had been one of the team's three best players all year long, and for a Blazers club that was already thin on top-end talent to begin with, I thought Nurkic's injury would do them in.
Instead, they closed the season strong and went on to raise some eyebrows after a couple of strong performances over the Thunder in Games 1 and 2 of this series.
Remember: this is essentially the same Portland squad that got swept by the New Orleans Pelicans—yes, those Pelicans—in the first round last spring, so you can see why everyone was pretty bearish on their ceiling.
But maybe we underestimated just how good Damian Lillard is.
A legitimate argument can be made that Lillard is having the best season of his career, as he has been piercing opposing defenses all season long and was really giving it to Westbrook before Game 3.
And C.J. McCollum? He has been pretty darn good, as well, as he and Lillard have comprised what is probably the league's smoothest backcourt outside of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
When you have two shooters like that, you are never out of a game, and Lillard and McCollum have certainly been shooting the lights out in this series.
Still, my problem was never with Lillard or McCollum. My issue—and pretty much everyone else's issue—with Portland is the rest of the team.
Without Nurkic, this Blazers squad does not really have a reliable third option. Sorry, Enes Kanter fans, but Kanter is not that guy, and it's not like Terry Stotts has a plethora of other options otherwise.
Al-Farouq Aminu is a nice three-and-D guy, but that's where it starts and ends. Rodney Hood? He can have big games here and there, but for the most part, he is incredibly inconsistent. Evan Turner can't shoot, Zach Collins is still a baby and Seth Curry is not Steph.
So, while the Blazers definitely have a lot of guys who can play and deserve minutes, they don't have a whole lot of elite talent up and down the roster, which means that Lillard and McCollum basically have to go off for Portland to have a chance of beating the upper echelon clubs.
Heck, even this current series against Oklahoma City is not over, because if the Thunder win Game 4 on Sunday, a whole lot of pressure will be placed on the Blazers' shoulders to win Game 5 in Portland, or else they will face an elimination game in OKC next week.
What I will say about Portland is that it drew a fairly easy bracket.
As a matter of fact, a legitimate argument can be made that the Blazers' first-round series will be tougher than their second-round matchup, as that potential series will pit Portland against the winner of the San Antonio Spurs-Denver Nuggets series.
Whether or not the Thunder are better than the Spurs and the Nuggets is certainly debatable, but it seems safe to say that, between Westbrook and Paul George, Oklahoma City has more talent than other of those two squads.
That means if the Blazers do end up beating the Thunder, they will avoid the Houston Rockets in the second round and may very well end up drawing San Antonio, which is a 7-seed. A tough and experienced 7-seed, but still a 7-seed.
It's hard to imagine a more favorable road to the conference finals for Portland, a team that was essentially forgotten about all season long.
I mean, realistically, whomever advances to the Western Conference Finals will only end up serving as a sacrificial lamb for the Golden State Warriors, but if the Blazers can be that team, it would still represent a major step for the franchise and might even have some free agents thinking about taking their talents to the Pacific Northwest.
All of that said, while Portland is a good ballclub, I'm remaining skeptical, as I don't even think this series is over yet.
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