The Golden State Warriors ended their playoff series last night with a 125-121 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Though the Blazers won only one of the five games, the widespread consensus is that they gave the Warriors all they could handle. Game 5 was no different than most of the other games, with the Blazers leading for most of it and the Warriors needing fourth-quarter heroics, in this case a Stephen Curry three-pointer with a defender in his face with 24 seconds left, to close it out. Afterwards, the Blazers seemed quite pleased with how they had played and expressed a lot of confidence in their future. It will be interesting to see if they make any significant personnel moves in the off-season. They won’t have the first-round lottery pick that analysts were once sure they would have in the upcoming draft, but they have almost certainly made themselves a more appealing destination for prospective free agents. With one of the lower payrolls in the NBA at $51 million, the Blazers should have enough cap space to pursue an addition or two to go with their fabulous back court. There’s no reason to think the Blazers won’t improve next year on their 44 wins this season, and it’s not outlandish to think that with reasonably good fortune, they might find themselves in the upper echelons of NBA Western Conference contenders, especially given current developments with much of their competition. Blazer season ticket holders should have a lot to look forward to in the coming seasons in the Moda Center.
As for now, we are seeing interesting turns of events elsewhere in the NBA playoffs. The San Antonio Spurs, whom everyone expected to be the Warriors’ chief obstacle in defending their title and validating their 73-win season, are on the brink of cleaning out their lockers for the off-season, partly due to Tim Duncan’s shocking disappearance but mostly due to the determined play of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who finally have a complete and healthy postseason roster since they went to the Finals in 2012. The Warriors might well have more to fear from the Thunder than the Spurs at this point—though the Warriors won both of their regular season games against the Thunder, both were close, including an overtime game in February. I would not be surprised to see that series go the full seven-game distance. If the Warriors manage to advance to the Finals, they will then likely face a Cleveland Cavaliers team that is steamrolling the NBA Eastern Conference and have a much healthier roster compared to last year. When all is said and done, no one will be able to claim that the Warriors didn’t face worthy competition this time around.
– Chuck Strom
