Some have called this the greatest rivalry in NSL history. Some have paid it no attention as it is secondary to the NSL lottery, due to the amount of teams involved in winning one or the other. No matter how you see this Western Conference Finals match up, you at the very least give it its due. This match up is the NSL finals as far as this writer is concerned, not only because it contains the only two teams that have ever won an NSL title but because these two GMs have been at the pinnacle of the gamesmanship since the league�s inception. Their gamesmanship has come to the fore this season more than ever, with both teams defeating star studded line ups to get this far, showing what a few stars surrounded by quality role players in the right spot will get you very far.

How did we get here?:

Portland Trailblazers:

This team hasn�t skipped a beat not dropping a singly game through to this stage of the playoffs with only small tweaks to their line up to keep everyone on their toes. Lebron, Durant, Richardson, and Poetl have been the 4 consistent starters, and we have seen MVP nominee Andre Drummond split starter minutes with Tristan Thompson. There has been some rotation at the back end of the roster to fill in the minutes, but these guys are really just trying not to give back the margin when they are on the floor.

Phoenix was brushed aside quite handily, with an average of margin of nearly 24 points. The less said about Phoenix here the better, as fiery GM Jmac let the media know that he was not happy with the reporting of the series. Lebron and Durant put up 24 each game and coasted to victory.

The Nuggets faced the same fate against the dominant Blazers and while there were two game with a margin in single figures, it was the Blazers series from the get go. Durant dropped of the pace for this series, not reaching 20 per game. Lebron on the other hand stepped it up further for 25 per game. Drummond got the majority of starter minutes and was pulling in 14 boards a game, which is what we expect to see from the big man.

San Antonio Spurs:

This team was also a beast in both its series leading up to now, only dropping a single game off the back of an injury to Giannis part way through the 2^nd game of their 2^nd series. They started fiddled a little with their line-up, similar to the Blazers. Vucevic was the starter to begin the first two games of the Houston series, but the late season signing of Willie Cauley-Stein picked up the rest of the starter minutes for the next 7 games. The core four of Giannis, Brooks, Harden, and McGee were the other starters for the two series. The main rotation minutes for the squad depth went to Lamar Stevens, James Johnson, and Reggie Jackson.

The Houston series saw mostly double figure wins for the Spurs behind Giannis as the top scorer, followed by Brooks and Harden with equal PPG. Vuc and McGee were the boardmen to put back the second shots and to stop Houston�s offense. A 13 pt series margin is telling to how this series was dominated.

The Memphis series was slightly closer with only an 8pt margin, but 8 points is still a strong margin when they gave away one game due to Giannis�s injury. Giannis stepped it up further in this series reaching 28 per game and Harden also shined scoring 21, Brooks rounded out the scoring with better numbers than his first series as well. Where they were unstoppable was on the boards, with 3 players in double digit rebounds per game and Giannis with 17 a game. If this version of Giannis comes up against the Blazers the Spurs might get this series.

Position by position:

Centre:

Jakob Poetl v JaVale McGee

Two players who are made for 2k. Both long and strong enough to give each other headaches, with Poetl having the edge on the boards by rating due to his offensive numbers, while JaVale has the edge on the blocks and quickness to give the team headaches. I can see this position nearly playing to a draw, and the season stats show it too, with barely a point and half a rebound separating the game averages. Its hard to go past the McGee with slightly more NSL playoff experience with 34 games as a starter from his 45 played versus only 17 starts for Poetl from 26 games.

Power Forward:

Andre Drummond v Willie Cauley-Stein

A really fun match-up here as both GM�s will know these guys inside and out. The last time Willie was in the playoffs he was with Portland starting all 13 games he played those playoffs in the 20-21 season. Conversely the last time San Antonio was in the playoffs they had Drummond on their roster in the 20-21 season where he helped them lift the title. While Drummond is now a mainstay in Portland where he won the title last year, he looks to now make it 3 on the trot. Willie is looking to add another ring to his fingers as he won one back in the inaugural season with Portland.

I�ve let my feelings known on Drummond being an MVP candidate for the last few months and I expect this to be a solid win for the Blazers, his strength and ability to counteract WCS length will be sufficient to neutralize and dominate him. WCS won his ring playing at the Small Forward position, and for 2k he if OP at that position, but he doesn�t have the luxury of flexibility to shift there so I expect him to get squashed.

Small Forward:

Lebron James v Giannis Antetokounmpo:

I don�t know what to write about this match up and I don�t know how to split the difference between them. What I do know is that Giannis is coming off the back of an uber rebounding series, and as awesome as Lebron is, I don't know if he can slow down that part of Giannis�s game. What will probably happen is both these guys will somehow get their numbers and still show why they are the top of the pops for NSL players.  The one thing we could highlight is that somehow both these guys were available for trade at some point in their short NSL careers. Like I get it, we trade in this league, that�s what we do. Lebron has been traded twice and Giannis who struggled to get out of the first round in his career got moved last off-season for some really good picks.

Its going to be really fun watching both players cook against each other as we haven�t been able to see the match up all season due to the trades, injuries, and positional shifts.

Shooting Guard:

Kevin Durant v Dillon Brooks:

KD will eat Brooks alive. DB is a really solid defender and has good size for the shooting guard spot, but guess who is bigger and better? The snake himself. KD has averaged 25 per game and once again, how did this guy get traded? Moving on. Brooks has fit well into the 3^rd offensive option for the Spurs and helps spread the floor somewhat, but he will struggle against the length of KD. On the offensive end KD has everything he needs to get his shots away against DB. I think we will see DB average only 10 per game this series while KD will sit around the 20 mark, similar to what he managed last series.

Point Guard:

Josh Richardson v James Harden:

Trying to game plan against Harden was a nightmare, how can you slow down a guy who get the ring whenever he wants and has the ability to pull up or create a shot anywhere on the court at his will. I guess the first step is you can throw a bigger defensive player like Josh Richardson at him. While Josh wont win the battle all he has to do is try not to lose it by too much. Josh has held his own throughout the season though similar to DB in being the 3^rd scorer for this team and Harden wont slow him down as much as KD would slow DB down.

The backcourts will probably play each other to a draw if Nels gets his way, but the edge goes to the Blazers with KD having the superstar edge over Harden.

Bench:

Portland will field Tristan Thompson, Caris LeVert, Cam Reddish, Joe Ingles, and Luke Kornet in a deep 10 man rotation, compared to Nikola Vucevic, Reggie Jackson, James Johnson, and Lamar Stevens with only the 9 man rotation. Does the shorter rotation with a star big man overcome a deeper and more balanced rotation, I don�t think it does. While Vuc is a luxury as a sixth man, Thompson and Kornet can manage to play him to a draw on the boards and the wings for Portland will do well to hold the line better. The margin from the bench will be marginal (sorry) so I wouldn�t be expecting much to really shift from this end of the game.

Summary:

While the breakdown doesn�t show much difference between the two teams, the main X factor is my MVP Andre Drummond. I don�t think WCS can slow him down and what he will bring to the team will catapult the Blazers to a series victory and the chance for Drummond to add a third ring to his fingers.

Blazers 4-1