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Casey Holdahl

When the Western Conference first round series between the Trail Blazers and Clippers started, many assumed it would be a quick affair, with the Clippers eventually moving on to face the Golden State Warriors in the second round. And after Warriors point guard Stephen Curry suffered a knee injury that will keep the reigning MVP sidelined for the start of the second round, much of the conversation revolved around how that would improve the Clippers' chances of beating the defending champs in the Western Conference semifinals. The fact that the Clippers still had to beat the Trail Blazers two more times didn't seem to make much of a difference.

A few days later, that narrative has flipped. Leading the series 3-2 with a chance to clinch in Game Six tonight at the Moda Center (tipoff scheduled for 7:30 pm on KGW, ESPN and 620 AM), the Trail Blazers are now Golden State's presumptive opponent, as injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have all but ended the Clippers' playoff run.

But just as the Clippers still had to win four games to advance, so too do the Trail Blazers, which is a good reminder that there are no such thing as inevitability when it comes to sports. "That's why the play the game," might be trite, but it's still as true as it ever was, something the Trail Blazers know as well as any team still alive in the postseason.

"We just go out there and play, we don’t really pay attention to what’s being said," said CJ McCollum. "You can’t read into that too much. First we were supposed to get swept, first we were just happy to win a game, so you just go play. You don’t really worry about the other stuff, you just control what you can control, keep your mindset the same, understand that nothing is inevitable. You’ve got to go out there and play."

Though the Trail Blazers were able to beat the Clippers 108-98 at Staples Center in Game Five sans Paul and Blake, a team led by JJ Redick, DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers still managed to take a five-point lead into the half and had the game tied at 71-71 going into the fourth quarter, so it's not as if any team, including Portland, can just roll the ball out in a playoff game and expect to emerge with the victory. After all, if that were the case, the Clippers would already be in Oakland preparing for the Western Conference semifinals.

"We understand that they’re a good team," said McCollum "Regardless of what’s happened, regardless of what injuries they’ve gone through, they’re still a good team and we’ve still got to go play the game."

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Trail Blazers Ignore The Notion Of Inevitability Going Into Game Six

LOS ANGELES -- It took a while, but the Trail Blazers we've seen in the last two games in Portland finally showed up in Los Angeles Tuesday night, and not a minute too soon.

After failing to exert their will on an undermanned opponent playing without both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Trail Blazers outscored the Clippers by 10 in the fourth quarter to come away with a 109-98 victory in Game Five at the Staples Center. The Trail Blazers now lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 with a chance to clinch a spot in the Western Conference semifinals with a win in Game Six back in Portland.

"We knew we would have to win here eventually to win the series and we got it done tonight," said Maurice Harkless. "Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and get a win on Friday back home."

Portland has won the last three games versus the Clippers, with Wednesday night's victory being their first road playoff win since 2014.

As has been the case throughout the series, neither team was capable of finding easy offense early in the game. Neither team managed to shoot better than 35 percent from the field and both turned the ball over four times. The Trail Blazers were able to get to the line for 10 free throws in the first quarter, but made just five of those, starting a trend of poor foul line shooting that would continue for most of the game.

Both teams would improve in the second, though the Clippers would get the upper hand by scoring 20 points in the paint on the way to shooting 54 percent from the field in the quarter. Harkless and Gerald Henderson would combine to score 15 points in the quarter to keep Portland in the game, but even their best efforts couldn't stop the Clippers from taking a 50-45 lead into the intermission.

"We had to play harder," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "First half, especially the second quarter, the Clippers played harder than we did. They got baskets in transition, they got offensive rebounds, they got kick-outs, extra possessions and they played harder than we did in the second quarter."

Portland's fortunes changed in the second half. They shot 48 percent from the field, thanks in large part to CJ McCollum going 4-of-5 from the field for 10 points in the quarter, and played with more connected on the defensive end, as evidenced by holding the Clippers scoreless for nearly the first six minutes of the first half. The combination helped Portland grind down what looking like an increasingly fatigued L.A. team to tie the game at 71-71 going into the fourth.

Then it was Damian Lillard's time to shine. After shooting 1-of-10 from the field in the first three quarters, the point guard in his fourth season out of Weber State hit his first shot, a three-pointer, to start the fourth quarter and proceeded to go 6-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from three for 16 fourth-quarter points.

"All my teammates throughout the game, they just kept saying, 'Keep shooting, stay with it, stay aggressive, keep your mind right,'" said Lillard. "I would have been doing that all along, but it felt good to have that encouragement and that support, especially with them trapping so high out. I had to trust the right play, hitting the guy in the middle and allowing him to make the next play to the weak side. I just had to be patient."

With Lillard's help, the Trail Blazers were able put together a 15-3 run early in the fourth to take a 13-point lead with 7:48 to play in regulation. A few minutes later, an 11-2 run would push Portland's lead to 17, their largest of the night, before coasting to the 10-point victory.

The Trail Blazers were led by McCollum, who went 9-of-18 from the field to finish with 27 points, four assists and four rebounds in 39 minutes. Harkless went 7-of-14 from the field to finish with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

"I knew I had to be aggressive," said Harkless. "It was tough for guys to get going in the beginning and I saw opportunities to attack and was open a few times, so I took advantage."

Mason Plumlee, arguably Portland's most valuable player thus far in the playoffs, also put up a double-double of 10 points and 15 rebounds to go with four assists. Lillard finished with 22 points, five assists and three steals in 39 minutes.

The Clippers had six players score in double figures led by 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting for JJ Redick. DeAndre Jordan finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds in 31 minutes.

The series now once again shifts back to Portland for Game Six at the Moda Center. A win would give the Trail Blazers the series and a second round date with the Golden State Warriors, while a loss would force a Game Seven back at Staples Center.

"We want to close the series out," said McCollum. "We've got a unique opportunity here to play an elimination game at home, and we want to make sure we take full advantage of it."

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Trail Blazers Assert Themselves In Fourth To Win Game Five

Despite being a heavy underdog, the Portland Trail Blazers evened their best-of-seven first round playoff series by winning Game Four versus a relatively healthy Los Angeles Clippers squad. The same could not be said of the team the Trail Blazers will face in Game Five Wednesday night at Staples Center.

The Clippers announced Tuesday afternoon that starting point guard Chris Paul would be out for at least the next four weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured third metacarpal in his right hand, an injury he suffered in the third quarter of Portland's 98-84 victory in Game Four. Paul, a nine-time All-Star and arguably the best point guard in the NBA, averaged 23.8 points on 49 percent shooting, 7.3 assists, 4.0 assists and 2.3 steals while playing stellar defense on Portland's guards in the first four games of the series.

"My job as a coach is to figure out a way of getting us up and ready for Game Five," said Clippers coach Doc Rivers. "There’s nobody, probably in the league, that’s going to replace Chris Paul so there’s nobody clearly on our team that’s going to do it. As a group everybody pitches in."

While the Clippers stopped short of listing Paul out for the entire playoffs, saying instead that he would be reevaluated in four to six weeks, that timeline assures the 6-3 veteran point guard out of Wake Forest will miss the rest of the series versus Portland.

To make matters worse for Rivers, it was also announced that Blake Griffin would miss the rest of the postseason with a left quad injury that has dogged the All-Star power forward for much of the season. Griffin also suffered his injury in the third quarter of Game Four.

“I could feel it," said Griffin after Game Four. "Hopefully in the next 24-48 hours you turn a corner and feel better, so I’m not really concentrated on how it felt tonight, that’s kind of expected after you tweak something."

Griffin had an MRI on his left quad Tuesday, which showed no new damage, but the aggravation was evidently serious enough to sideline the five-time All-Star. He played in just 35 games this season due to dealing with a partially torn left quad and a broken hand. Griffin averaged 15.0 points on 38 percent shooting, 8.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 31.8 minutes during the 2016 postseason.

Rivers will likely look to some combination of Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers and Pablo Prigioni to fill in for Paul, while Jeff Green, who started 10 games for the Clippers after being traded midseason from the Grizzlies, while likely pick up Blake's minutes. Rivers and Green are listed as probable starters in place of Paul and Griffin, respectively, according to the newest version of L.A.'s game notes.

“We’re going home, all they’ve done is win two games at home just like we won two games at home," said Rivers. "We’ve been in adverse situations all year with guys out but guys have come through and I expect us to do that at our place.”

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Paul (Hand), Griffin (Quad) Out For Remainder Of Series Versus Portland

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And we're back. Less than 12 hours after the Trail Blazers defeated the Clippers at the Moda Center in Game Four to knot the first round series at two games apiece, Joe Freeman, he of The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, and I, Casey Holdahl of ForwardCenter.net/TrailBlazers.com, hit the studio for the second time in 24 hours to record another edition of the Rip City Report, hot off the mp3 presses...

On this edition, we discuss Portland’s win in Game Four, the monumental shift in the series due to Chris Paul breaking a bone in his right hand, other Clippers injuries and how they affect the series going forward, Portland seizing momentum and whether or not they're now the favorites, the slump-busting performances of Al-Farouq Aminu and Allen Crabbe, Terry Stotts finishing second in Coach of the Year voting and answer your Twitter questions regarding adjustments, reporting taboos, the "Rip City" jerseys and whether CP3's alternate egos are prepared to step in. It really is a new day.

You can find the Rip City Report on Soundcloud, iTunes and Stitcher. Use one of your non-broken hands to post a review on iTunes. And go cop your Game Six tickets if you haven't already.

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Podcast: Rip City Report, Game Four Edition

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."

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Despite What They Say, Just Getting To The Playoffs Was Never Enough For These Trail Blazers

PORTLAND -- Though Al-Farouq Aminu had struggled mightily from behind the three-point line in the first three games of Portland's first round playoff series versus the Clippers, his coaches and teammates were adamant that they wanted the starting forward to keep shooting. Sooner or later, the percentages would come back around and the shots were start falling.

Luckily for Aminu and the Trail Blazers, it was sooner.

The 6-9 forward in his sixth season out of Wake Forest and his first in Portland went 6-of-10 from three and 11-of-20 from the field to finish with a playoff career-high 30 points as the Trail Blazers defeated the Clippers 98-94 in front of a sellout crowd of 19,607 at the Moda Center Monday night. The series is now tied at 2-2 with Game Five scheduled for Wednesday at Staples Center.

"It was just a matter of time," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts of Aminu's performance Monday night. "Obviously he struggled shooting the ball the first three games, but that didn't take away from what he was giving us defensively. It was good to see him break out. Everybody has been encouraging him and he's put in the time and, like I said, it was just a matter of time before he had a game like that."

Aminu, who had score just 28 points in the first three games combined, hit his first two shots, both three-pointers, and would go on to score Portland's first eight points. He would go on to score 10 points in the first quarter, which was especially timely with the rest of the team combining to go 3-of-15 from the field in the first 12 minutes.

"Some of the greatest shooters have gone through slumps," said Aminu. "Like Ray Allen, I remember he went through a slump when he was in the Finals. I remember just watching what he was saying and he said he got up the same shots that he always got up. He did exactly what he always (did). Sometimes that just happens. I know if it can happen to Ray Allen of course it could happen to me."

And on Monday, it was happening to all of the Clippers not named Chris Paul in the first quarter. Over 10 minutes had elapsed in the first quarter before a non-Paul Clipper scored from the field, though Paul would put up 12 points in 11 minutes to keep L.A. within four going into the second quarter.

The next three quarters, while not as offensively challenged, would continue along the same general path, with both teams turning the ball over and neither having much luck stringing together consecutive quality possessions. It wasn't until the Trail Blazers were able to go on an 18-6 run to start the fourth that they able to put enough separation between themselves and the Clippers to get their deep bench a few minutes before finishing off the 14-point, wire-to-wire victory.

"I think we came out and it was obvious that we weren’t going to go away," said Damian Lillard. "What we did last game, we didn’t want it to seem like, 'Oh they can do it for one game, fight for one game.' We came out and did the things that we did last game at an even higher level. Multiple guys stepped up. We had just a great group effort. I think everybody was locked in to what we needed to do as a team and we turned it up tonight from last game."

After Lillard and CJ McCollum carried the load in Portland's Game Three victory, it was their lesser-regarded teammates who made the difference Monday night. Allen Crabbe, who had struggled as much as Aminu in the first three games, went a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from three to finish with 12 points in 27 minutes.

"It felt good," said Crabbe. "I just need to see the first one go in, felt like myself tonight. They denied me the ball, they don't help off of me when we're in pick and rolls, so I just had to find other ways to get the ball. Handoffs, get into my one-dribble pullup -- I like those. Just finding ways to score."

Maurice Harkless built on a strong Game Three performance, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes. Mason Plumlee, who, along with Lillard and McCollum, was integral in the Game Three victory, might have trumped that performance in Game Four, finishing with a double-double of 14 rebounds and 10 assists to go with three blocks and two points in 29 minutes.

"Almost all of the players were here in September and in pickup games, (Plumlee) was doing the same thing," said Stotts of his starting center. "He was getting rebounds, taking it full court, you could really tell he could handle the ball, he had great sense as a passer and we felt even going back then, that we were going to try to put him in positions that he could make those plays."

The Clippers lost far more than Game Four Monday night, as starting point guard Chris Paul left the game in the third quarter with a broken bone in his right hand. He did not return, and one would expect he'll miss the rest of the series with the injury.

"My job as a coach is to figure out a way of getting us up and ready for Game Five," said Doc Rivers. "There’s nobody, probably in the league, that’s going to replace Chris Paul so there’s nobody clearly on our team that’s going to do it. As a group everybody pitches in."

Clippers starting power forward Blake Griffin also sat out the fourth quarter with what the team called a sore left quad. Rivers speculated that there was a "50/50" chance the All-Star forward would be available to play in Game Five Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm on KGW, NBA TV and 620 AM.

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Aminu And Injuries Surface As Portland Ties Series With Game Four Win

Greetings postseason basketball fans. The Trail Blazers will try to even the series versus the Clippers tonight in Game Four at the Moda Center, so Joe Freeman, he of The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, and I, Casey Holdahl of ForwardCenter.net/TrailBlazers.com, hit the studio to fulfill our promise by recording another edition of the Rip City Report podcast, which you can listen to below...

On this edition, we discuss Portland's win in Game Three, the difference that a dynamic Mason Plumlee performance made, the difficult times for Allen Crabbe, trite jokes about Portland, what to expect in Game Four and answer your Twitter-submitted questions about the necessity of Damian Lilard and CJ McCollum scoring proficiently, Los Angeles-based burger joints and no-show socks. These are the kind of topics that you have to mine when you're recording a podcast multiple times a week.

You can find the Rip City Report on Soundcloud, iTunes and Stitcher. I've run out of pithy ways to encourage you to leave iTunes reviews. You're on your own now.

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Podcast: Rip City Report, Game Three Edition

While none of the Trail Blazers would go so far as to call Game Three of their first round playoff series versus the Los Angeles Clippers a must-win, they all knew the reality of what it means to go down 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. No NBA team has ever come back from that deficit to advance to the next round, and the way the first two games went, it would be hard to argue the Trail Blazers would be the first team to do so.

So late in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's game at the Moda Center, Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard got his teammates together and asked them a question. He probably already knew the answer, but he asked the question just the same, as there is little room for error or ambiguity when going up against a formidable opponent while trailing in a playoff series.

"Everybody’s season is on the line right now," said Lillard. "I think there was about two minutes left and there was like a dead ball and I huddled the guys up and I said ‘Are y’all ready to go home? If we don’t finish this out, that’s where we’re going to be headed.’"

Lillard evidently got the answer he was looking for, as the Trail Blazers closed out Game Three on a 15-1 run to come away with a 96-88 victory and force at least a Game Five in Los Angeles. He didn't raise his voice any higher than he need to be heard over the sound of the Moda Center crowd, didn't make any bold proclamations about their potential legacies being sullied or their season before for naught. He just asked a simple question and received equally simple responses.

"We were just talking to each other, all calm," said Maurice Harkless of the late-game huddle. "There was emotion in the words, but we weren’t yelling at each other. We were just talking to each other... We all were like, 'We’ve got to win this game, we gonna do whatever it takes to win.'"

For Harkless, that meant turning two offensive rebounds into two putback dunks in the final minutes of the game. For Mason Plumlee, it was keeping DeAndre Jordan off the boards. And for CJ McCollum, it was hitting a three-pointer that started Portland's game-ending run.

"He just said what everybody was thinking: We ain’t trying to go home yet," said CJ McCollum. "'We’re up right now but we’ve got to make sure we close this game out, don’t get too comfortable. Finish the game and then go home and rest.'"

Which is what they did, and what they'll now be able to do before Game Four on Monday at the Moda Center.

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Trail Blazers Answer The Question In Game Three Win

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