NBA: All-Star Guard Says His Team Could Beat The Los Angeles Lakers In Orlando

Damian Lillard is eager to prove that the Portland Trail Blazers are still legitimate playoff contenders heading to the Orlando bubble in July. Sounding bold and unintimidated, the five-time All-Star says he does not mind facing the Los Angeles Lakers, who are the best team in the West, and claimed that his team is ready to drop the upset ax on LeBron James and crew.

Without any hesitation, Lillard responded confidently when asked by Lisa Robinson of Vanity Fair if he is looking forward to facing the conference leaders in the first round of the Playoffs.

“Of course. I think we could beat (the Lakers),” he said.

The Trail Blazers will be entering the modified season sitting at the ninth place in the West with a 29-37 record, which is three and a half games behind eighth-placed Memphis Grizzlies. Joining them in the race for the last two playoff spots are the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, and Phoenix Suns.

Overall, a total of 22 teams will be brought to the Walt Disney World Resort wherein eight regular-season games will be played to determine the finals seeding, as well as the last participants that will be bound for the postseason joust.

The NBA explained the revised format via an official release that read: "The season restart would begin with eight 'seeding games' for each returning team and include the possibility of a play-in tournament for the eighth and final playoff seed in each conference depending on combined records across regular-season games and seeding games. Once the 16-team playoff field is set, the NBA Playoffs would proceed in a traditional conference-based format with four rounds and best-of-seven series in each round. The NBA Finals would end no later than Oct. 12."

The training camp is scheduled to begin on the 9^th of July.

In essence, the Trail Blazers are going to play under a format they deem unfavorable, to begin with. It is to be noted that Portland was the only team that opposed the proposed restart plan because the “franchise believed there were more competitive and innovative formats on (the) table,” per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

But even before Commissioner Adam Silver made the official announcement, it had seemed that the Blazers were already at odds as to the resumption of the season. Take for instance Lillard, who himself had proclaimed that he would not play on non-bearing games.

The NBA may have heard his sentiments and adjusted accordingly. And now that the Blazers are staying in the hunt for a playoff push, fans inside their homes will expect the same vicious Lillard to deliver his usual clutch exploits in the tournament, and carry the same in the postseason.