Damian Lillard thinks the Portland Trail Blazers can defeat the Los Angeles Lakers.
The NBA season is going to officially resume action on July 30, starting with eight “seeding games” that essentially serve as the end of the regular season that will not only allow teams to make a final playoff push but to get their game legs at least somewhat under them.
The Los Angeles Lakers are essentially a lock for the first seed in the Western Conference. It would take the Lakers going 1-7 or worse and the Los Angeles Clippers going 7-1 or better for the Lakers to lose out on the first seed and it is doubtful that either of those things happen.
Thus, the Lakers are going to have a myriad of potential first-round opponents. Any team that was within six games of the eighth seed was invited to the league’s resumption in Orlando, giving five teams who currently are not in playoff position a chance to make the playoffs.
If the ninth seed finishes within four games of the eighth seed then they still have a chance, as they would enter a playoff where the ninth seed would have to beat the eighth seed in back-to-back games to advance as the new eighth seed.
One of those teams is the Portland Trail Blazers, who were actually the lone team to vote against the league resuming in Orlando. A potential first-round matchup between Damian Lillard and the Blazers against the Lakers would be fun television, but Lillard thinks it would be more than that.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in which he also discusses the current events and protests in the country (go read it, it is a really good and enlightening read), he said the following when asked about wanting to play the Lakers in the first round:
"“Of course. I think we could beat them.”"
Well, Mr. Lillard, you are incorrect on that statement. Here are two reasons why the Trail Blazers would not just lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, but would not get past Game 5, at the most.