re: NBA playoffs 4/16: ORL/TOR, SAS/DEN, OKC/POR

Pels double team dame to get the ball out his hands and his teammates shite the bed miss open shot after open shot. So far billy has elected not to trap Damian.

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How different is Portland this season compared to last season, at least roster-wise

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We added Seth Curry, a 45% 3pt shooter. We added Rodney Hood, off top of my head he’s a 37% 3pt shooter, Zach Collins is better at this point than he was last year. I loved Ed Davis but he brought nothing valuable to the table. Shabazz Napier is no longer a blazer. And Harkless is healthy (if you remember he played one game last year due to his knee and he’s our best defender).

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Are they this good or is this just the best matchup for them while last year was about the worst matchup for them possible?

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Idk if I’d say the Thunder are the best possible, they were 4-0 against Portland this year and every expert gave Portland no chance even knowing PG had a bum shoulder. There’s a lot of good teams in the West playoffs every year. I’d def say the Pels were our worst possible matchup last year, by far. Jrue was relatively unknown nationally so ppl were surprised by him (I wasn’t) and AD was a monster. Not an excuse, you guys outplayed us by a wide margin, but Lillard was clearly off. He had a baby and his brother was shot a few days before the playoffs began. On top of playing every night going down to the wire to just get us into the playoffs. He burned out imo. It’s nice to see a motivated, zoned in Lillard in the playoffs.

In short I’d say the additions of Seth Curry and Hood and subtraction of Napier, Pat C, and Ed Davis (all liabilities offensively) has opened up the floor for Lillard.