Josh Davis
This Golden State and Portland series will be a very entertaining one with the matchup of the dynamic point guards Curry and Lillard. Another entertaining matchup is Thompson from GS and McCollum from Portland. A fun storyline for this series is the Curry brothers meeting for the first time in the Western Conference Championship, which is the first-time any brothers in the NBA have met in a conference championship. In the four games during the regular season, both teams split the series two-two. Golden State averaged 117.7 points per game and Portland averaged 114.7 points. This will be interesting to see how Golden State plays without their star player Kevin Durant. Durant is not 100% healthy until possibly the Finals if they make it past Portland. Golden State still has the two-time MVP, Stephen Curry and he has had Portland’s number, averaging 27.7 points per game against them while shooting 43.7% from 3. For Portland to beat Golden State in this 7-game series, they will have to have everyone firing on all cylinders for the whole 48 minutes. Meaning everyone from Lillard to the water boys for Portland will have to be great for Portland to make it out of this series on top. Portland had a key piece go down against Denver, which will prove to make things a little harder. Rodney Hood suffered a knee injury in game 7 against Denver and is questionable for game 1. Not having him brings down their bench play. With that, my prediction is that Golden State will take the series in 5 games, but not without a fight put up by Lillard and McCollum.