WCF sounds like a stretch. Teams that make it that far don’t give up the kind of FG% that the Blazers allow this year.

In a playoff series we will end up seeing a ton of the persistent doubleteams on BRoy that kept the Blazers from scoring down the stretch in some games early this season, and unless Webster makes a full recovery by then there may not be enough weapons to spread the floor.

This is one of those times I’d love to be wrong.

it is possible. If we were to make it to the WCF a lot of things would have to start clicking for us with consistency, that right now we only see in spurts. Things like our recent advantage in the paint, and Greg’s game (except for last night) would need to become what is expected every night all night. We’d also need to improve our defense, no way do we stay with LA in a pure offensive game (there defense is just too much better than ours right now). We also need to figure out how to deal with good wings…in order to make it to the WCF we’ll have to figure out how to contain good wing players like Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony (if he gets back to 100%), T-mac, and etc.

Possible but very unlikely. Experience matters in the playoffs. Thus far, the blazers haven’t played well on the road against the top west teams and their defense isn’t good enough to succeed in the playoffs.

Having said that, playoff positioning will be key for this team if they are going to advance. A key injury to an opponent can make a big difference in the playoffs as most teams aren’t as deep as the blazers are.

Can they? Yes, absolutely they can.
Will they? Probably not

I was thinking about this the other day. Let’s says LA and SA end up 1-2. Let’s say we get the 3 or 6 seed and beat whoever had the other one. That puts us up against the Spurs in round 2. I think it’s possible. Sure, they’ve got ALL the experience going for them, but A) they aren’t deep, and B) they generally don’t blow teams out, which always gives you a chance.

The Blazers are learning, but they still havejump shots on the brain a little too much. The Utah game was evrything that has been talked about by the coaching staff. Portland was hot from outside early in that game I think they hit 4 straight tre’s built a mild lead in the 1st quarter but by halftime had only a 5 pt. lead. The Jazz hung tough and were not having to work on D. The outside shot went cold and Utah was right there just grinding it out. The second half was the ballgame Portland started to go to the rim draw some fouls and get the inside points that establish a teams presance. Okufor got into foul trouble Millsap had five fouls early in the 4th and just looked like he became disinterested in the game.
Portland becomes a contender when post play and presance become the priority, I dont hate teams that shoot the 3 but I do know that they are not going to hit them very often consistanly and they are not going to be drawing the critical fouls that can break another teams will to win.

So based on a win over a mediocre Utah team we’re supposed to go to the conference finals? For the last four weeks we couldn’t defend, or shoot for that matter, and now we’re goin to the finals. Same team, same problems, but fun to watch.

So far, Portland is seeded as a 5. That means a first round date with the New Orleans Hornets. The second round would probably be against the L*kers. The third round is harder to predict because there are more possible combinations (2/7, 3/6 — probably Spurs over Mavs, and Nuggets over Rockets), but it doesn’t look very favorable.

Basically, I think at this point that there are long odds that Portland will make it out of the first round, let alone get to the WCF.

HOWEVER, on the plus side, Portland is still a young team with some unknown elements. If the team were more of a veteran team, what you see would be pretty much what you would expect to get, and the upside might be more limited. There are some promising pieces that have just shown flashes of living up to their brilliant potential: Oden and Bayless are the primary culprits. And it ALMOST doesn’t bear repeating that Webster has been MIA all season….when he comes back, we don’t know what we’ll get out of him, or how he’ll acclimate back into the rotation. The second half will either wear us down, or it will see us gel and peak possibly at just the right time. At this point, too many things would have to bounce just right for Portland to get into the WCF.

get there only if we get top four because we are so good on the home floor

 hotson im not worried about they hav not made it out of the first round
lakers i dont like it if they have bynum but he might be out (and updates on that by the way)
NO this is the scary team for me
denver we can beat them
jazz if they make it i think the only way we beat them is id we are top 4
san antonio i like our chances dont know why
phoenix or dallas im more scared of dallas i dont think phoenix even makes the playoffs

sorry if i forgot any one