The Portland Trail Blazers drew the unenviable task of playing the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2017 NBA playoffs. If you ask Damian Lillard, though, that’s exactly what Portland wants.
Lillard spoke to the media about the team’s upcoming series, which begins on Sunday afternoon. According to Portland’s high-scoring guard, being in a position where no one thinks they can win is working in the team’s favor.
“It’s the NBA,” Lillard said, according to USA Today. “It’s about playing right at the right time, playing well at the right time, and we believe that we can beat anybody. We’re not going into the playoffs saying, ‘Alright, we got here, we did a great job, we fought back and let’s just go in here and put up a fight.’ We’re going in here and we want to win. Ain’t no moral victories and all that. We’re coming to win. They’re a great team. Nobody expects us to beat them. We have nothing to lose.”
Lillard – who has already done a Brandon Jennings impression and predicted the Blazers will win in six – expanded on this thought by saying that the team believes in themselves, while also acknowledging that beating the Warriors four times over the course of a series will be “a tall task.”
Portland’s potential postseason run suffered a big loss a few weeks ago, when Jusuf Nurkic suffered an injury that put him on the sidelines. While it sounds like Nurkic could potentially come back some time soon, it sounds like Lillard and the Blazers are ready to give the Warriors all they can handle.
(Via USA Today)
