The NBA is the National Basketball Associations is the professional basketball league. It comprises almost 30 teams and is one of the major leagues out of four leagues, selected from all over the Canada and United States. This national basketball association is so much popular and considered to be one of the most-watched basketball leagues all over the world.
It is not always normal that the fans are waiting for a No. 1 seed against No. 8 seed first-round matchup, but this is the same case as with the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Portland Trail Blazers.
Both these teams are considered to be one of those amazing leagues popular for playing Basketball games and recently Los Angeles Lakers which is the professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. On the other side, there present the other team named Portland Trail Blazers is also the American Professional basketball team based in Portland. Both these teams compete in the national basketball association as a member of the league’s western conference Northwest Division.
In the first round playoff match, there was no more than one strike that was more fascinating than lakers versus Blazers. Can the Lakers who went on just 3-5 in the bubble, hold the Blazers who are coming out with the straight victories to touch this point?
While the Los Angeles Lakers promoted the capability of LeBron James in the 2019-20 regular season and Portland Trail Blazers featured the potential MVP in the Orlando Bubble, Damian Lillard. Lillard played the game in such a professional way. The 30- years old man came out as a bonafide stud, averaging 37.3 points, 9.6 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game on 49.7 percent from the field and 43.6 percent from outside the boundary in the bubble.
Performance of Portland Trail Blazers
Another amazing performance is also done by the Portland Trail Blazers’ latest victory that is not even highlighted, a 126-122 victory against the Grizzlies during the game. Lillard secured 31 points with 10 assists for the Blazers after the season as the eighth seed.
The victory over Memphis made the game more interesting against the Blazers, who got elimination in postseason contention in the regular-season finale win against the Brooklyn Nets. Blazer won against the opponents by a combined margin to 11 points while Portland made a victory in the last four matches of football.
During all this, Lakers came with difficulty in the postseason after securing the No. 1 seed early or at the start. Los Angeles has to improve its offense, the one that is present on the bottom of the league in every major category in the whole bubble.
The main question arises
While there are many questions that arise during all these matchups including, can the Lakers beat the Blazers? Or can Portland improve their defensive play to win against the Lakers over this matchup series?
The Lakers played the whole game by their two hard-working players named Jame and Anthony Davis, a tandem that showed amazing chemistry while playing regular sessions scoring almost 51.4 points per game on the shooting efficiencies of .493 and .503 percent each.
However, they played hard in the bubble. James made just 22.0 points per game while Devis gave the up and down performances during these matchups in the bubble. However, they both played well in their last matchups. Devis made the amazing record by giving huge output during the Laker’s three last victories (average of 34.3 points per game in those victories) in the bubble.
After this, Blazers was exchanged with the trio of players including Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Carmelo Anthony, along with the dosage of Jusuf Nurkic. We all know that Lillard was among the MVP in the bubble but the performance of McCollum was nothing less than amazing.
He did the heroic performance in the bubble. McCollum was played with his fractured back and he also beat the Portland playoff berth with a three-pointer late in the team, won against Memphis during the matchup.
Personal matchup becomes a major issue
But this is the point where these personal matchups become a major issue. The Blazers are undoubtedly the best guard duo in the whole NBA and the Lakers have no answer for that. As Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo were not present during these matchups, who are the strong defenders with the experience, the Lakers will have to make the decision to choose the other two players named Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. But both Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Danny Green are also amazing defenders, who are going to play well for Lillard.
On the other hand, Lakers are going to lose as Green and Caldwell Pope are going to give that much offense, they will go to get a win in the matchup. James will be counted as one of the point guards as primary ball-handler and will play his part very well against Carmelo Anthony during the complete series.
Both players will remain strong in the 17th season, there is no competition here to compete with them. James is a much better player as compared to Anthony.
While the frontcourt members, Nurkic and Zach Collins will not be able to compete or stop Davis during any matchup. According to the analysis given by the TNT, Devis can be seen unconfirmed at some times. He had just 34 point explosions in the match against the Clippers and 11 shot attempts after 42 point outburst against the Jazz. In the follow-up sessions, Devis made nine points in 11 attempts against the thunder who got just 17 points on 8 shot attempts in a LeBron-less loss to the Rockets in the games.
In short, if Devis is hard to control but all know James will react the same way. And Blazers have no answer for this power. The storyline and other things remain aside, the question is, who is going to win the series?
Blazers are more Powerful
Blazers are more powerful as they score much during matchups due to 3 point shooting. While the Lakers are better for a seven-game playoff series. All this is not an easy question to answer, as it is no more likely to be No. 1 versus No. 8 playoff matchup. They both were playing under the western conference last season and they dealt with every issue strongly.
The ability to remain up both inside and outside with the Devis and James is the hard task for the blazer to compete with. Los Angeles is considered to play defense during these hard stretches, which is not an easy task for Portland to do, that will come to the conclusion of the deciding factor in this seven-game series.
