LA Clippers Playoff Matchups: Portland Trailblazers

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 17: CJ McCollum #3 of the Portland Trail Blazers handles the ball against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the LA Clippers on December 17, 2018 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

With playoff seeds in the air, we’re looking at the potential matchups for the LA Clippers. In this piece, we think about a series against the Portland Trailblazers.

At 36-29 with 17 games left to play, the LA Clippers’ playoff fate is still very up in the air. We could very realistically land anywhere from the 6 seed to the 8 seed, meaning our playoff opponent (if any – we haven’t clinched anything) is unknown. We at Clipperholics decided to do a preview of each possible opponent; in this piece: the Portland Trailblazers.

Regular Season Matchup

To this point, LA and Portland have played 3 games in 2018-19. The Blazers lead the season series 2-1, with the most recent game being a 131-127 Portland victory in December. The Clips struggled all season against the dynamite backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

The guard pair have combined to average 54 points, 10.6 rebounds and 6.7 assist against LA. Both shoot better percentages against our guys than they’re averaging on the season. Jusuf Nurkic has also played well against the Clips. In our one win against the Blazers he missed the second half. The other two games had him put up statlines of 16/9 with 3 blocks and 20/3 with 7 assists.

On the Clippers’ side of things, rookie Shai-Gilgeous Alexander has played very well against the Blazers, including one of his best games of the season in December, where he posted 24 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds on 60% from the field. In a playoff series, we would need him to step up, as the most impactful Clipper against Portland has been Tobias Harris, who is now in Philadelphia.

Forward Danilo Gallinari has played well against Portland this year, putting up 19.7 points, 6 rebounds and 2.7 assists on better than 50/40/90 shooting. He generally has one of the easier defensive assignments on the team; Portland is weakest at the 3 and 4, which allows Gallo to expend more effort on the offensive side of the ball.

Portland has added Enes Kanter since last the two teams played, giving them another option off the bench. The teams will meet for the final time on the 12th of March. This’ll be their only meeting after the trade deadline, and it will go a long way to seeing how the new look Clips can deal with the Blazers.