[Image source: Wikipedia]

Well, its all set. The Golden State Warriors will match up against the Portland Trailblazers for the Western Conference crown and the Milwaukee Bucks take on the Toronto Raptors for kings of the East.

As a Nuggets fan, to lose in the manner that we did was crushing, but it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. That’s a topic for a different post, though. For now, I want to focus on the rest of these playoffs and give some predictions about what I think it going to happen.

The Warriors will steamroll the Blazers. I don’t think anyone expected the Blazers to get as far as they have. It’s impressive. One of their stars, Nurkic, is injured so they have to rely on Ernes Kanter in the post. That’s not exactly comforting. When Kanter grabbed his own shoulder injury, I think people started to write them off. They’ve battled back and shown that they deserve their spot. CJ McCollum and Rodney Hook are playing the best basketball of their lives. Collins is giving them a huge boost off the bench. Everyone knows what Damien Lillard can do.

But they aren’t the Warriors. The Trailblazers would struggle to beat the Rockets, who were relatively easily dispatched by the Warriors in 6 games. The Warriors even closed out the series without their star, Kevin Durant. If KD doesn’t come back, the Warriors will still win this series. If KD does come back, the Warriors will destroy the Trailblazers into shivering husks of what they once were. If KD and Cousins come back? I’d hate to be a Trailblazers fan.

I’ve admitted that I’m a Nuggets fan so this all may come across as incredibly biased. But, in all sincerity, I would love for Portland to win this series. I hate the Warriors and I’d love for them to not make the finals. I always root for upsets. Portland was the one team I was totally fine with beating the Nuggets. The others would’ve stung far worse. I like and respect the Trailblazers.

But they aren’t good enough. If Kevin Durant comes back, who is going to guard him? Kanter has to guard Bogut. Aminu? That’s a terrible matchup. Aminu struggled against Millsap, who is maybe half the player KD is. Harkless? That’s worse than Aminu. Frankly, no one can consistently guard KD. He is easily top three players in the league right now. He’s long and fast with a good shot. Portland can’t handle that well.

Even without KD, the Blazers will struggle to stop the Warriors. Klay and Steph are probably the two best shooters in the game. The Blazers really struggled to guard threes against the Nuggets. The Nuggets just so happened to miss every open shot they took, but you can’t count on the Warriors to do that. This is not a good matchup for the Blazers. Warriors in five.

The East is more interesting in terms of it being a better matchup. It’s hard to focus on that though because I don’t think either of these teams has a chance against whoever comes out of the West. I know, I know. The Bucks had the best record in the league. But they also played in the East. They got to beat up on sucky teams way more than the Warriors or Rockets or Nuggets. The competition just isn’t as good out East, so it’s hard to take their record seriously.

Kawhi is playing like a man possessed. And Giannis is a superstar. But they’d need far more support to beat the Warriors.

I think the Bucks win in 6 and the Warriors take the championship in 6 games.

This is the last year of the Warriors reign, I can feel that. They’re going to lose some key pieces in the offseason. The NBA is about to get all kinds of exciting.