April 25, 2018
Page 5
New Orleans’ Jrue Holiday and his Pelican teammates stop
Portland in the NBA playoffs with Saturday’s 131-123 victory and a
4-0 sweep in the opening round. (AP photo)
Blazers Look to Future
A good season
ends with a crash
(AP) — Another late-season
surge, another first-round exit.
The Portland Trail Blazers head
into the offseason with plenty of
questions, with speculation that
big changes could be ahead. Min-
utes after the Blazers were elimi-
nated by the New Orleans Pelicans
with a 131-123 win on Saturday
and a 4-0 sweep in the opening
round of the NBA playoffs, Blaz-
ers coach Terry Stotts was already
addressing how Portland gets bet-
ter going forward.
Stotts said he has confidence
that Portland President of Basket-
ball Operations Neil Olshey will
keep the team pointed in the right
direction.
“It’s tough to evaluate after a
playoff loss,” Stotts said. “We had
a good regular season. We did a
lot of positive things in the regular
season, but ultimately you’re de-
fined by the postseason. I think it’s
still a little early right now to say
what direction we’re going to go
and what needs to be done moving
forward, but one thing is that Neil
is really good.”
Portland made it to the playoffs
for the fifth straight year after fin-
ishing the season 49-33 and win-
ning the Northwest Division title
for the seventh time in franchise
history.
The Blazers were boosted by a
13-game winning streak that start-
ed with a victory over the Golden
State Warriors just before the All-
Star break, and secured the third
seed in the Western Conference.
The team’s streak matched the
franchise record.
Damian Lillard drove the
team’s success during that span.
In March he averaged 27.9 points,
4.6 rebounds and 6.5 assists. He
also set a franchise record by
making 64 straight free throws.
He was named the West’s player
of the week twice.
But New Orleans was able to
contain him in the playoffs. He
averaged 18.5 points during the
series, after scoring 26.9 per game
during the regular season.
The Blazers have lost 10
straight playoff games. They were
understandably stunned when the
Pelicans took the first two games
at the Moda Center. While they
fought in Game 4, it was too late.
New Orleans had the momentum.
No sixth seed had ever swept a
No. 3 in a best-of-seven series.