Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers will start their first-round playoff series against Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and the Warriors on Sunday, and it seems as though Lillard is confident with regards to the matchup. Even though Portland lost all four games it played against Golden State during the regular season and even though the Warriors knocked the Blazers out of the playoffs in just five games in the second round last season, Lillard spoke with CSN Northwest on Wednesday night and made his prediction for this year’s rematch. And he decided to go bold with it:
Blazers in 6? Blazers in 6.
Now, we should point out that Lillard didn’t really have much of a choice when he predicted a Portland victory. The question he was asked was "Blazers in six or seven?" so what was he going to say? "Um, actually, Golden State in 5"? No. If you haven’t followed Lillard’s career thus far, he’s not a guy who’s going to back down from a challenge. Even if that challenge comes in the form of a team that looks like they’ll be impossible to slow down in the first round of the playoffs.
But that didn’t stop some people from trying to put Lillard in his place for picking his team to have so much success against the Warriors:
Many NBA fans also reminded Lillard about what happened when Brandon Jennings picked the Bucks to beat LeBron James and the Heat in six games in a first-round playoff series back in 2013:
If you don’t remember that, here’s a clip of Jennings making his bold prediction before Milwaukee got swept 4-0 by Miami:
But at least one of Lillard’s fellow NBA players appreciated his confidence. It appears as though Russell Westbrook liked Bleacher Report’s Instagram post about Lillard’s prediction:
Lillard’s words will probably get blown out of proportion and thrown back in his face if the Blazers end up losing to the Warriors. But isn’t this what makes the NBA Playoffs so much fun? The Golden State/Portland matchup was already intriguing, and this should make it even better.
The Warriors and Blazers will tip off their first-round series on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ABC.
