Game 70: Portland vs Utah 6:30pm SNW/ESPN

[monopoman]

Blazers are absolutely playing their best basketball of the season over the last 10 or so games. Very nice to see and this team is really pushing hard to either nab a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs.

Lakers are responding with wins also but they are doing it mostly against much easier teams. Tomorrow's game in Phoenix will be very tough, road B2B but at least the starters got some rest in the 4th.

[dunlop212]

How many teams are playing better than PDX right now? IMHO MOV is a pretty solid indicator of future success, and PDX is killing it right now. Is it possible PDX with a healthy Dame and Nurk is a pretty good team? Was the trade for Powell (a guy who has a reputation for upping his game in the playoffs) a solid move?

[JasonStern]

I mean basically any team in the top 4 is a pretty rough matchup if fully healthy. I think I would prefer a Clippers matchup than going up against a Denver team hell bent on revenge for 2 years ago and was coming off a WCF appearance.

No! The Clippers are the team we want to avoid the most. Powell has been great lately as a small ball 3, but Kawhi/George would feast on him in a seven game series. Suns would probably be our best matchup, so naturally it will be the Clippers.

[BlazersBroncos]

Ya, Clippers are clearly the worst matchup. They have the size at SF to punish us.

[d-train]

Ya, Clippers are clearly the worst matchup. They have the size at SF to punish us.

It's not clear to me. Joker kills us on 2 fronts. He is a match up nightmare himself, and he is the best in the NBA at setting up his teammates.

Either team is good, but Joker is harder to beat than Kawhi. Kawhi has more help. Joker knows how to help his helpers.