NBA Western Conference First Round Preview: Warriors vs Trail Blazers

(photo credit: sbnation.com)

Raise your hand if you want to see some high energy, high scoring, three-ball shooting, ball-handling guards take over the game. Good, me too. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum all sharing the same court. You can even throw Kevin Durant in there too for good measure. The over/under number of threes per game should be near 20, and who wouldn’t love watching that?

While entertaining, this matchup provides no true competition to the Warriors quest for a third straight Finals appearance. They’ve beaten Portland in all four games they’ve played this year, and by an average of nearly 20 points per contest. The Warriors have averaged 125 points, and the Trailblazers have not had any drastic change since their last meeting to encourage that number will drastically decrease.

While Lillard is a star that lives for the playoffs, and loves to shine when the lights are the brightest, his one-man band show matches up poorly against the well-oiled machine Golden State has assembled.

ESPN BPI says the Trailblazers have less than a one percent chance of pulling the upset, and we have no reason to disagree. Lillard and company pull one heroic game in Portland, but the other four are blowouts as the Warriors advance in five.