Before the first round of the Western Conference playoffs even started, many who cover the NBA couldn't help but discuss how exciting a second round matchup between the Clippers and Warriors would be. Sure, there was still the little matter of the Portland Trail Blazers facing the Clippers in the four-five first round series, but to them, Los Angeles moving on was nothing short of an inevitability.
Though nobody bothered to tell the Trail Blazers that. Actually, they did, they just didn't care to listen. In a season in which their quality had been doubted well before training camp, hearing their chances of advancing to the second round of the playoffs dismissed before a single second of postseason basketball had been played was nothing new. And in some ways, it was probably expected.
"The same people who said that are the same people who predicted us to be last, so that really doesn’t mean nothing to us," said Ed Davis. "We could use it as motivation, but this late in the year, with what we’ve got at stake, we don’t really need bulletin board material. We’re motivated enough. People gonna talk man -- that’s their job -- but we just focus on us and we come ready to play."
Which is what they've done in their last two games at the Moda Center. After starting the series by losing the first two games by an average of 20.5 points, the Trail Blazers have taken Games Three and Four at the Moda Center to tie the series at 2-2. Winning a game at Staples Center, which they'll have to do eventually if they're to advance to the second round, seemed all but impossible a few days ago, but with the way the Trail Blazers played in the last two games, one has to wonder if some are rethinking the notion that the Clippers would be a shoe-in to meet the Warriors come the Western Conference semifinals.
"We don’t care what they say," said Damian Lillard. "They’re they. They didn’t expect us to make the playoffs, so why would they expect us to come in the playoffs and beat the Clippers? That’s just the way it is, they expect the Clippers to be that team that advances. We’ve heard the talk, we’ve watched TV and seen them talking about the second round series that isn’t here yet, but we stayed here. We know that they still have a series with us. I said before the series started that it’s not going to be easy, we not going to come out here and lay down and say, ‘Hey, we wasn’t supposed to make it but we did.’ We’re here to compete, we’re here to win and that hasn’t stopped."
In fact, it's probably picked up momentum, especially with important Clippers experiencing multiple significant injuries, including point guard and future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, who suffered a fractured bone in his right hand in the third quarter of Game Three. With Paul likely out, not to mention Blake Griffin battle a quad injury and JJ Redick dealing with the effects of a bruised heel, and the series tied, the notion that Portland was a road apple on L.A.'s path to the second round seems specious.
"We don’t listen to they, block them out," said CJ McCollum. "You’ve got to go play your game, you’ve got to control what you can control. Winning home games is big and now we’ve got a tough road game coming up. Game Five, we need to be ready to play. We can’t listen to what everybody else is saying, it’s just white noise. We’ve just got to stick together, stay as a unit and trust the process."
Even after winning Game Three, there were some that wondered if perhaps the Trail Blazers, a team that next-to-nobody picked to make the playoffs at the start of the 2015-16 season, would be satisfied enough in avoiding a sweep. And four months ago, that might not have been an outlandish assumption, even if none of the players nor coaches would admit it. But times have changed, and so too have the Trail Blazers' metric of what constitutes success.
"I’d say earlier in the year, we were happy just to be fighting for the playoffs," said Davis. "This league is all about confidence. As you get better, players start to play well, you get more comfortable and coach starts to get more comfortable with the players. Our mindset changed throughout the year. Coming into this series we felt like we had a good chance to win. It’s the four-five so it’s not like it’s the one-eight where we’re these big underdogs. There’s still three games left, could be two, and we’re going to fight and give it our all. Win or lose, we’re going to fight."
Not only is Paul likely out for the series, but Warriors point guard and reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry will miss at least the next two weeks with a MCL sprain, so either the Trail Blazers or Clippers will be taking face a shorthanded Golden State squad, at least for the first few games, in the second round. That would still be an incredibly daunting task for the Trail Blazers should they somehow manage to prove the experts wrong once again by beating the Clippers, but one thing is for sure: they won't be happy just getting there.
"Sixteen teams make the playoffs, and I would be really surprised if any of those teams, whether the one-seed or the eight-seed, was here to say, ‘We know we’re not going to win the championship but we just want to compete,’" said Lillard. "That’s not what it is. You’re here to go after it. You never know, anything can happen. We’re going to put our best foot forward until somebody takes us out."