2015 Playoffs: (4) Portland vs. (5) Memphis

[Mandich]

I think you're being too hard on Portland. Bad luck with injures and a bad series SO FAR by Lillard. These things happen and hey, there's always next year.

[NovU]

If Memphis sweeps the Trailblazers in this series, it's easy to say Aldridge will leave that piece of shit city and move on to another one in the offseason.

Portland is a beautiful city. I loved it but I can see how party hoop la people from LA and big cities wouldn't like to live in Portland. It's quite, clean, and laid back kinda like Canadien cities in west.

I can't imagine Aldridge leaving Portland, didn't he say he loved to play there. But I actually want to see the Blazers taking another direction to build the team around Lillard. I honestly don't like Aldridge that much, he has that ceiling like Shareef Abdul-Raheem imho.

[bowdown]

Aldridge is not a big spotlight guy. He is the #1 option in Portland which plays team oriented basketball and the fans really appreciate him. Without injuries Portland was definitely in contention to reach WCF.

The only team I think has a legit proposal for LMA to consider are the Spurs. But still Portland has a pretty good chance to keep him.

[Andrew]

Like the 4 vs. 5 match-up in the East, this one hasn't been quite as competitive as I anticipated.

[Brave Sir Rubin]

The Blazers are having a very hard time finding good options with all of the injuries.

Afflalo may be back this upcoming game and could add a much-needed scoring punch. Otherwise, the Blazers need to utilize Aldridge even more than they already do. Lillard is great, but can go cold pretty quick. Aldridge is a highly reliable workhorse and arguably the second best PF in the league. He should be taking at least 30 shots a night. He only took 20 in game 2.

[rise]

Aldridge is giving Lamrock a reason to drink himself to sleep tonight. Jesus Christ.

[Kevin]

Lillard.. what a fucking joke.

Meanwhile, Batum has 6 3-pointers!

[Brave Sir Rubin]

I went to the game today, and man, it was pretty disappointing. I expected the Grizz to win, but not to dominate. The Blazers played no D. Memphis could have won by 30 if they hit more shots.

[Mandich]

Proved my point that you can't be considered the clutchest player in the league after three seasons.

The crybaby disappears.

[Stress Fracture]

Proved my point that you can't be considered the clutchest player in the league after three seasons.

The crybaby disappears.

I still conclude that Lillard's shot last year was just a lucky one.

[deihatein]

Proved my point that you can't be considered the clutchest player in the league after three seasons.

The crybaby disappears.

I still conclude that Lillard's shot last year was just a lucky one.

[Lamrock]

I know how important Wesley Matthews is to this team, and that the Grizzlies are a bad match-up, but this has truly been a pathetic showing. This is worse than that season when we had Felton, Jonny Flynn and Thabeet.

[Lamrock]

I'm really glad we didn't get swept though. McCollum has stepped up a lot this year fwiw.

[bowdown]

Portland's bench is looking good for the future. With their starters coming back full strength, CJ, Afflalo, Meyers, Kaman and a couple more pieces would be legit.

[Lamrock]

McCollum is so great. Kudos to the team for fighting in game 5 despite LA's struggles and knowing they wouldn't win the series.. I was just happy for this not to be a sweep, but the team played pretty well to make things interesting. CJ and Meyers looked great in this series.

I'm ready for Batum to be traded though. Dude's been trash all year and he's never going to be as good as we hope he'll become.

Congrats to Memphis. Hope Mike Conley's face heals. He looked bad.

[bowdown]

Batum had a down year but he has always kinda been a guy you have to make excuses for. Next year is contract year entering his prime so it should be obvious what to do with him.