Portland Trail Blazers VS Houston Rockets First Round Preview

The NBA Playoffs are finally here. The Portland Trail Blazers will take on the Houston Rockets in the first round. Game 1 will be played Sunday at 6:30 PM PT. The Blazers will be starting off on the road. Both teams finished the season with the same record, but Houston earned the tie breaker winning 3 of their 4 season series.

After going 33-49 a year ago, the Trail Blazers are back in the playoffs with a 54-28 record. The 21-game improvement is a franchise best, topping the 20-game improvement between the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.

Since the all-star break, the Blazers have improved significantly on the defensive end, while slipping a little on the offensive end. NBA.com’s John Schuhmann points out the defensive improvement here, which led me to look up the offensive stats during the same time period.

Overall, the team has slipped in total offense since the break. But if you look at since LaMarcus Aldridge’s return, the Blazers have gotten their offensive production back, scoring 109.2 points per 100 possessions since March 27. They come into the playoffs playing some of their best basketball this season. Their defensive game has elevated to another level as well, holding opponents to 102.8 points per 100 possessions in that span.

During that same time period, Houston has given up 107.6 points per 100 possessions and scored 109.3 points per 100 possessions. To their credit, this could partly be caused by the few absences of two of their better defensive players due to injuries (Dwight Howard and Patrick Beverly). Nonetheless, Portland is coming into the playoffs playing better basketball. Houston is just 5-5 in their last 10 games and Portland is 9-1.

This is going to be a hard fought series. From the past few games between the two, you can tell these teams do not like each other. As this series goes on, that is going to become even truer. The sweat will pour. There may even be some bloodshed. Hopefully for Houston, some tears will follow.

Patrick Beverley VS Damian Lillard will likely get the headlines after their little back and forth after their final game of the season series. It will be an interesting matchup, as will all the starting matchups. It’s hard for me to pick a key matchup, so I will just go over the each starting matchup and bench vs bench.

Dame vs Beverley

Lillard has actually performed well against Beverley. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe Dwight Jaynes. Beverley is a good defensive player, but Lillard is a great offensive player with a ton of weapons alongside him. Lillard has the edge in this one.

Wes vs Harden

Welsey Matthews and Nicolas Batum have both tried to guard James Harden this season. They both found that task to be very difficult. Harden is a great scorer. This will be the most difficult matchup for Portland, but I believe that they’re up for the challenge. However, Harden gets the edge here.

Nic vs Parsons

I want to see Nicolas Batum be aggressive offensively in this series. He is at his best when he is just playing and not thinking too much. If he starts hesitating and passing open shots, this matchup goes to Chandler Parsons. I love the pick-and-roll action between Robin Lopez this season, let’s get some more of that this series as well. I’m a huge fan of Parsons, however. He’s very versatile on both ends of the floor and a smart player. I’m giving this matchup a push for now until I know which Batum is going to show up.

LA vs Jones (?)

LaMarcus Aldridge will destroy Terrence Jones. They may switch a lot and have Howard on Aldridge, or play Omer Asik on him as well. Either way, Aldridge will get his. He looks great since returning to the lineup. I’m giving LaMarcus a huge advantage here.

RoLo vs Howard

This could be the most important matchup of the series. Howard has been great against Portland. Lopez has been very consistent this season, but he has struggled a bit guarding the length and athleticism of Howard. I’m giving this advantage to Howard.

Bench vs Bench

Portland will likely put out a bench rotation of Mo Williams, Dorell Wright, Thomas Robinson, and Joel Freeland.  Will Barton and Meyers Leonard could possibly get looks if any of the said players struggle.

For Houston, I know Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik will be in their bench rotation. From there, it’s out of Omri Casspi, Donatas Motiejunas, Jordan Hamilton, and Francisco Garcia. I think it will be Casspi and Motiejunas, but you may see small stints from either of the other two as well.

Slight edge to Portland. This group has been together the whole season, and everyone knows their role coming in. Houston has seen a lot of different rotations and I’m not sure they have theirs set for the playoffs.

Who Wins?

I know Houston took the season series. Maybe you’ll say I’m just a homer going for the Blazers here, but I honestly think they can win it in 6. If it goes 7, Houston will win. Portland’s defensive improvements will be put to the test early, as the Rockets are a team that can fill it up in a hurry. I love the way Portland is playing as of late, though. They’re coming into this playoff series with a great deal of confidence. I say Portland gets one in Houston within the first two games and rides that momentum throughout their own home games.

Portland’s phenomenal crowd, combined with the early win on the road will propel them to a 3-1 lead. Houston will win game 5. It will then be up to Portland to handle business in game 6 at home. They don’t want to go back to Houston for game 7.

All stats aside, this is a new season. This is everything each of these teams has been playing for all season long. It’s time to leave everything out on the floor in these games. It’s time to win or go home. I can’t wait for this to get started. This should be a good series to watch.