“4. I’m very interested in seeing Friday night’s Lakers-Blazers game, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it has obvious seeding implications for the Western Conference playoffs — Portland will have a great shot at the No. 3 seed in the West if it can beat L.A. tonight. Second, it’s the first time these teams have played since Trevor Ariza took out Rudy Fernandez, so it should make for a heated environment inside the Rose Garden tonight.

But most of all, I want to see this matchup because I’m increasingly thinking that the Blazers are the one team who can make L.A. sweat in the postseason. Denver hasn’t matched up with the Lakers well the past two seasons, and some of the other teams we expected to contend haven’t quite lived up to expectations.

But the Blazers have played reasonably well against the Lakers in recent matchups, are healthy entering the postseason, and have the strongest Power Ranking of any Western Conference foe. We may be getting a preview of the conference finals tonight, and if not, we’re getting a look at what could be a very competitive and testy second-round fight."