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NBA Playoffs

Lower seeds can't be counted out in stacked West

Jeffrey Martin
USA TODAY Sports
Stephen Curry and the Warriors will be a first-round test for the Clippers.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Trail Blazers' 119-117 overtime victory Sunday against the Golden State Warriors at Moda Center featured a little of everything, most notably a season-high 47 points from Warriors guard Stephen Curry.

Stars doing what stars do, reserves knocking down big shots, and a collective sigh of relief from the home crowd.

It was a tease, really.

"This is what you expect of two playoff teams preparing for that next step," Curry said. "From start to finish, it had that feel."

And that was, at the moment, the Western Conference's fifth and sixth playoff seeds pitted against one another — just imagine the intensity once the best-of-7 series actually begin, when one of these lower seeds locks up with one of the top four seeds.

Despite seeding and/or record, Golden State forward Draymond Green, whose step-back three-pointer with 3.6 seconds left in regulation forced overtime against Portland, insists there are no underdogs.

"The bottom four teams, as good as the top four are, the bottom four should feel just as confident in their chances going into these series — and I think that will be the case," he said. "Usually you look at the playoffs and you can pencil teams in or highlight the best series of the first round. But in the West, you can't say any of that.

"It's tough, but it's also a great feeling going into it."

Through April 13, the top four seeds — San Antonio Spurs (4-0 vs. Dallas Mavericks), Oklahoma City Thunder (3-1 vs. Memphis Grizzlies), Los Angeles Clippers (2-2 vs. Golden State) and Houston Rockets (3-1 vs. Portland) — all held winning records or were tied in the season series against their first-round opponents.

But don't read anything into that, former New York Knicks coach and current ESPN color analyst Jeff Van Gundy says.

"In the regular season, games against each other can be misleading, depending on time of the year, who was in and who was out, one team playing a back-to-back, the other rested — everything equalizes in the playoffs as far as those things," Van Gundy said. "You can learn how you might want to guard things, how you might want to attack things, but if I was a fan, I definitely wouldn't read into regular season results head-to-head."

No team re-invents itself during the postseason, he said, and in the West, that would be futile anyway.

"I don't think anyone is vulnerable in the sense they'll do something to lose because they have a major weakness," Van Gundy said. "If they lose, it'll be because of a bounce of the ball, a tweak of the ankle or just losing to a great team. I don't think anybody out there is vulnerable in terms of weakness.

"What you do at this time of the year is you do what you do, and try to do it better than the other team does their thing. ... They're going to see it as equal-type teams playing against each other and one team starts at home."

It's likely different in the Eastern Conference, as many groused Sunday.

"A team that won 37 games is in the playoffs in the East while there's a team that wins 47 won't make it in the West," Portland guard Mo Williams said. "That shows you the difference in the conferences."

In the East, it would alarming if a top seed didn't advance. In the West? Van Gundy thinks the Grizzlies and Warriors could prevail now that their health is returning — although forward David Lee remains sidelined by a hamstring nerve issue and center Andrew Bogut underwent a MRI for an rib injury Sunday. He doesn't dismiss the Mavericks lightly, saying they had a fantastic year, or the Trail Blazers, calling LaMarcus Aldridge and Co. "hard to guard."

"Four of those teams are going to lose in the first round and their teams are going to be labeled as disappointments," Van Gundy said. "I wouldn't — I'd say it's circumstance and circumstance only. I don't know who is going to lose, but I know all of those teams are outstanding."

And dangerous.

The opportunity is there. Green and the Warriors just had a taste of what's in store.

"We're going into these playoffs and you look at these match-ups and you're like, 'Well, if they win, it's not really an upset. If they win, they were the higher seed, but ...,' " said Green, shaking his head while grinning. "But that's how this conference is."

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