Portland vs New Orleans Round One Review

In Round one of the Western Conference Finals, we had the 7th seed, The New Orleans Pelicans taking on the 2nd seed, The Portland Trailblazers.

The Pelicans have a stacked and very talented starting five, but the crazy thing is they are all 25 and under. They are led by Ja Morant who is only 22 years old, and is already a star of the league.

The Pelicans would have to be one of the most impressive young lineups in the league, if not the most impressive. When you see it is guys like, Mitchell, Bridges, Collins and Williams who are rounding out the starting five, just makes you think this team is only going to get better and better.

That is all well and good, but unfortunately they had to face the Blazers. Who just prior to the deadline, turned an already powerful force, into an almost immovable object.

They cut the �dead weight� in Kawhi and opted to be reunited with �their boy� Kevin Durant. The GM and Durant have a long and successful history in the former league which shall not be mentioned. 

Adding Durant to any team should immediately make them scary. Then you go and pair him with the likes of Harden and Westbrook and you become terrifying. 

Portland are giving the faithful OKC NBA fans painful flashbacks of what could have been.

GAME 1

Lineups

NEW ORLEANS

PG - Ja Morant

SG - Donovan Mitchell

SF - Mikal Bridges

PF - John Collins

C - Richaun Holmes

PORTLAND

PG - Russell Westbrook    

SG - James Harden

SF - Kevin Durant

PF - Andre Drummond

C - Hassan Whiteside

Unfortunately the Pelicans were without their young defensive centre, Robert Williams, so in Holmes got the starting gig in game one.

Forget small ball lineups, Portland have gone in the opposite direction, starting almost three seven footers. Not a heap of distance shooting from the Blazers, as Durant and Harden are the only ones you would rely on the hit the long ball, but none the less, a tough old school bigs lineup.

GAME 1 RESULT

PORTLAND - 123 NEW ORLEANS - 90

New Orleans could never really get going in this one, they shot a smidge over 40% from the field and only 20% from three. Morant was their best player, scoring 21 points with 4 assists. He shot well from the field, however is side kick, Mitchell did not. Mitchell shot 7-29 from the field and looks like he tried to shoot himself out of a slump mid game.

Little offence came from Bridges and Collins in this one. Safe to say it is one The Pelicans will forget and look to game 2.

Portland had control throughout the game. The 2nd, and 3rd quarters they won by double digits, which created that large gap the Pelicans could not come back from.

It was very even contributions from the Portland starting five, with all of them scoring in double digits. They were lead by Durant 24 points and Hardens 20 points. Drummond does what he does best, and notched down another double double, with 13 points and 17 rebounds.

Appears there was just too many ways The Blazers could hurt the Pels in this one, and too hard to stem the tide.

GAME 2

Lineups

NEW ORLEANS

PG - Ja Morant

SG - Donovan Mitchell

SF - Mikal Bridges

PF - Patrick Williams

C - Richaun Holmes

PORTLAND

PG - Russell Westbrook    

SG - James Harden

SF - Kevin Durant

PF - Andre Drummond

C - Hassan Whiteside

The blazers understandably left their lineup unchanged and the Pelicans moved Collins to the bench and added in Patrick Williams at the power forward spot. 

Williams had missed a large portion of the season, but was back in time for playoffs. He has shown some real nice flashes. New Orleans were hoping he can inject some fire and appear to have gone with a somewhat small lineup to go against the Blazers big one.

GAME 2 RESULT

PORTLAND - 122 NEW ORLEANS - 102

The Pelicans wer better in this one. But I am sure the GM and the fans were still not happy with a 20 point loss.

Again, it was the 2nd and 3rd quarters were the Trailblazers sealed this one, winning them by 10 and 16 points.

New Orleans never gave up, they won the 4th quarter by 14 points but unfortunately for them it was a little too late.

Mitchell found his groove in this one, putting up 25 points on efficient shooting. The team as a whole improved their shooting percentages but besides Mitchell there wasn�t really anyone that stood out or stood up.

Once again, it was a well rounded effort by Portland. Again, all starters scoring in double digits. 

As a team they shot incredibly, over 60% from the field and over 40% from three. It is hard to stop a team with so many contributors who also shoots this efficiently.

Durant led them in scoring putting up 20 points, which yeah for his standards isn�t impressive, but he didn�t need to take over when there were so many contributors. 

GAME 3

Lineups

NEW ORLEANS

PG - Ja Morant

SG - Mikal Bridges

SF - Donovan Mitchell

PF - Richaun Holmes

C - Robert Williams

PORTLAND

PG - Russell Westbrook    

SG - James Harden

SF - Kevin Durant

PF - Andre Drummond

C - Hassan Whiteside

Once again the Blazers lineup goes ahead unchanged. Why mess with a good thing.

Fortunately for the Pelicans, their big man Robert Williams is back from injury and he was immediately injected in to the starting lineup.

The Pels moved Holmes down to the power forward spot and swapped around Mitchell and Bridges. 

Perhaps this was to get Bridges defence on to Harden, but then wouldn�t that mean Mitchell would be guarding Durant? Perhaps there were other strategies at play.

I would guess that The Pelicans are willing to try anything at this stage.

GAME 3 RESULT

PORTLAND - 129 NEW ORLEANS - 111

The Pelicans managed to win the 3rd quarter, but unfortunately that was the only one they did.

Williams was solid on his playoffs debut, scoring 11 points with 9 rebounds. However him and Holmes had a tough day at the office against the Blazers bigs.

 Morant and Mitchell finally showed up together, putting up a combined 61 points.

They also got a nice contribution off the bench from Terry Rozier.

It must be frustrating coming up against a calibre of team with the likes of Kevin Durant. Even though the Pelicans played a good game and they showed up the play, Durant goes out and drops 46 points on 21 of 28 shooting and mitigated all the hard work the Pelicans did.

Durant obviously led the charge, but Harden and Drummond were nice contributors too, putting up 44 points between them.

It just appears to be too tough to stop Portland doing whatever they want out there.

GAME 4

Lineups

NEW ORLEANS

PG - Ja Morant

SG - Donovan Mitchell

SF - Mikal Bridges

PF - John Collins

C - Robert Williams

PORTLAND

PG - Russell Westbrook    

SG - James Harden

SF - Kevin Durant

PF - Andre Drummond

C - Hassan Whiteside

Again, Portland goes in to game 4 unchanged.

The Pelicans go with their most tradition lineup, putting Collins back to the power forward spot.

At this stage, I am sure The Pelicans GM was feeling a little helpless, which to no fault of his own, probably is. That is just the way it is when youre coming up against such a formidable opponent. 

GAME 4 RESULT

PORTLAND - 128 NEW ORLEANS - 98

Again, there was just nothing the Pelicans could do to try to match or stop the Blazers. 

They fought valiantly, but the overpowering talent of Portland was just too much to contain.

Their didn�t seem to be much left in the tank for New Orleans. Mitchell put up 33 points and Morant put up 18, but besides that there wasn�t much contribution anyone else. 

New Orleans lost every quarter and just were out matched in this one.

Westbrook had his best game of the series for the Blazers, putting up 20 points and 6 assists on efficient shooting.

But their main man Kevin kept his dormant performances coming in this one. Scoring a team high 35 points, on once again extremely efficient shooting.

OVERVIEW

PORTLAND - 4 NEW ORLEANS - 0

The Pelicans would have known they had their work cut out for them in this one, as they are no fool and are not in the playoffs but luck or chance. But unfortunately they had to face one of the toughest opponents in the Blazers. 

There are few players in the league that can go out there and pretty much do whatever they want and Durant is one of them. Even with a very good defensive player in Bridges guarding him most of the series, it did not make any difference. 

The offensive output of Durant was just too powerful and consistent. Then there were steady contributions from Harden and Drummond throughout the series. 

It was just too hard for New Orleans to contain everyone or anyone.

MVP

Kevin Durant

I am sure there is no surprise here. He absolutely dominated the whole series.

I bet GM, Joel is not regretting his late season trade to acquire him.

for the four game series he put up numbers of:

31.3 ppg, 5.5 apg and 4 rpg. He did this while shooting a combined average of 66% from the field and 48% from three. He ended up with a plus/minus of +18.5.

Just incredible numbers from Kevin.

The Blazers now take on The Timberwolves in the 2nd Round. We will see if they have any better luck containing Durant and the Blazers.