Portland Trail Blazers Clinch Fourth Consecutive Playoff Berth

The Portland Trail Blazers have a date with the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 Western Conference Playoffs! With a hat tip to the 59-points-scoring Damian Lillard, the Blazers reached the brink of the playoffs Saturday night after beating the Utah Jazz. Then Sunday afternoon, Oklahoma City completed a late comeback with a Russell Westbrook buzzer-beating three-pointer to defeat the Denver Nuggets, officially eliminating them from playoff contention.

The Blazers and Warriors will play a rematch from last season’s second-round series, where the Blazers played tough in a 4-1 series loss. However, there will be some changes. The Warriors will be as healthy as they have been in months. Kevin Durant returned from injury Saturday night. And Stephen Curry (minor knee issue) is expected to be relatively healthy for the series, unlike last season.

Of course, the Blazers have changed too. Evan Turner will be patrolling the wings. And Jusuf Nurkić, recovering from a fibular fracture, is expected to be re-evaluated later this week. He recently looked comfortable participating in pregame shootaround.

The series will start this weekend. All first-round Blazers playoff games are typically televised locally on KGW, and nationally across the national broadcasters (ABC, TNT, ESPN and NBA TV). The NBA will release the schedule by Thursday.

Blazer’s Edge will preview this series in detail later this week, after the regular season ends.