Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Reasons why the Blazers can win a playoff series

If the Los Angeles Lakers fall asleep on Carmelo Anthony, it could be upset city! 

Carmelo Anthony has a lot of aliases that he goes by. He has gone from “Olympic Melo” to “Hoodie Melo” to now “Skinny Melo”? One of the storylines floating around in Orlando is the weight loss of Anthony for a possible position change.

Carmelo talked to ESPN’s Royce Young about the physical changes.

"“For me, I had that in the back of my mind, once Coach told me the position that I’d be switching back to the 3,” Anthony said. “I kind of challenged myself to get down to that weight where I feel comfortable with playing the 3, comfortable running around and utilizing things I can do within our system from playing the 3. “That was a big motivation for me to come back at that exact weight, or around that weight, 230, 235. I haven’t seen 230, 235 since early, early in my career,” he said. “So now it puts me back in a mindset of that from a confidence standpoint knowing that I was able to get back to that. On the court I feel good, I feel healthy. I have a lot of clarity, too. All of that was part of the plan.”"

With Portland getting their big men back, it seems that Head Coach Terry Stotts seems to have some plans for Carmelo Anthony. After doing his best to hold the fort at the power forward spot in the small-ball lineup, Melo gets a chance to go back to his preferred position at small forward.

If Carmelo Anthony had a career renaissance in a Blazers upset, it would be the story of the playoffs. This was a guy that was basically on ESPN’s First Take begging for a job. If the Portland Trail Blazers roster hadn’t been decimated with injuries, he might have retired. Watching Portland tread water with no offensive big man as a scoring option, if Melo can channel his “Olympic Melo” with his ability to score, he could help get Portland in the playoffs. If Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum get hot, yes the Lakers could be had.

Finally, if you have paid any attention to Carmelo’s career, he tends to be motivated to play both sides of the floor is when LeBron James is playing. Will he get the 28 point triple-doubles LeBron will get? Nope. But the Blazers don’t need that. They need him to knock down shots to alleviate the double teams that Lillard and McCollum will command.

Remember all a team needs for an upset is to get hot for a week and a half. We’ve seen Melo get hot for years.

Finally, this reason right here pointed out is why Lakers fans need to follow Lake Show Life over the playoffs. We cover everything.