Interesting stuff. Four anonymous Lakers were polled on who they didn't want to face in the first round.. three picked the Blazers, and one picked Memphis. Bring them on! Er.. or maybe not.. http://lakersblog.latimes.com/laker...-with-portland-or-memphis-in-first-round.html
It's nice of them to say, but it's bullshit. It would be an 8 on 5 sweep. At best it would be 4-1 so the Fake Show could win on their own court. No way Stern lets them lose in the first round.
um no....just calculated Portland would be the toughest 1st round matchup for sure. the Lakers would still win the series but I dont know if I want that much effort having to be put in a 1st round series, on the other hand it can get us "battle ready" which I dont buy since the Lakers have been here many times... Gimmie New Orleans all day
An anonymous poll of 15 Blazers found that 14 didn't want to face the Lakers... One, however said that the Lakers could eat shit and die, after which the other 14 agreed. But they still didn't want to face the Lakers. No way the Lakers (are allowed to) lose.
I agree completely. Portland would have zero chance of winning a first round playoff series against LA since they would have to win at least one game in LA. That simply wouldn't happen.
It's bad news that they don't want to play us. That means that if they do play us, they will bring their A game and not take the series for granted.
so we would be the toughest 1st round matchup...how about the second round? wcf? maybe they are just scared shitless.
It's obviously a mind trick by the lakers, trying to make Portland overly confident. There isn't a single Laker (or fan) who is afraid of Portland.
The Blazers won't beat the Lakers in the 1st round for the simple fact that the league won't allow it. It's sad because that statement is more true than false. If the Blazers would to meet in say the WCF however, I'd at least pay attention. Still won't let the Lakers lose but it's less of a sure thing than the 1st round. If you were to ask Grizzlies/Hornets fan I think they would all say the same thing. They're certainly afraid of the Lakers because they're good, but also because of the refs getting involved. Teams want to avoid the Lakers because of the refs as much as anything imo.
This is the time of year I REALLY wish we had a healthy Oden. Without him we don't have the size and interior defense to beat the Lakers in a 7 game series. If we face the Lakers, we'd probably push them to six games, but that's where it would end. The addition of Gerald Wallace helps, as it gives us another outstanding defender (Wallace is a rich man's Artest these days, or Artest is a poor man's Wallace, take your pick). As long as Kobe, Pau, Odom and Bavetta are healthy, the Lakers win. With Oden out, they still beat us even if Bynum goes down. We match up better with the Spurs and Mavs - and match-ups are a huge factor in any series where we don't have HCA. BNM
LA is hands down the better team. Now with that being said we could force them to 6 with an outside shot at 7 but we don't win that series. As someone mentioned above with a healthy GO we would have the size to possibly beat them in a series but without him getting them to 7 would be tough enough as is. I don't want to mention the 8 on 5 because at the moment LA is just the better team and if the Lakers need 8 on 5 to beat us then they aren't winning anything this year. The only way I think we would have a shot at winning a series vs the lakers is if Bynum wasn't healthy and we knew he wouldn't play in the series. but if we do get them in the first round I hope we make it a HELL of a seven game series that tires them so badly they get swept in round 2.
