1. Star Wars
As we touched on above, if the Blazers have any chance to make this series interesting, let alone win it, Damian Lillard has to be something close to best-player-in-the-world type productive. At this point, that feels like a pretty good bet. In addition to Lillard, C.J. McCollum will have to play like a star. As a duo, in terms of pure scoring, the Blazers' back court can keep up with LeBron and AD.
2. Doubles and Drops
The Lakers are almost certain to double and trap Lillard at least for stretches. If he gets hot, they'll almost certainly commit to taking the ball out of his hands at all costs. Lillard has reached the point where you have to send multiple defenders at him the moment as he crosses half court if you don't want to end up on the business end of a blow torch.
That opens up advantageous situations for the Blazers, who have the shooters to make the Lakers pay for sending two at Lillard. The math is going to leave either Carmelo Anthony, Gary Trent Jr. and of course McCollum open for a lot of shots, and those guys are all knocking them down a a high clip right now. Nurkic has also shown a nice feel for taking short-roll passes and either getting to he basket, finishing delicate push-shots or kicking to shooters. The Blazers are a very dangerous offensive team for the simple reason that Lillard is going to burn you one way or the other: Single cover him, and he'll get 50; double him and open shooters make you pay.
3. Carmelo conundrum
Anthony has been superb in the bubble, scoring 16.5 points per game on just under 46 percent shooting, including 47 percent from three. Say what you want about Melo, but Portland's offense hasn't a hard time sustaining itself -- unless Lillard is just going crazy -- with Melo on the floor. He's a spacer. A shooter. I hear his back-down post-ups and one-dribble pull-ups are an analytical nightmare, but right now they're a BIG part of what Portland is doing offensively.
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