After a two-year playoff hiatus, the Portland Trail Blazers are back to where they thought they were in 2008-09, when a promising trio of Brandon Roy, Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge made their first postseason appearance since the disassembly of the final Jail Blazers club in 2002-03.
Trail Blazers playoff history: Portland’s promise returns
The Greg Oden and Brandon Roy injuries brought disappointment to a proud franchise that was set on changing its culture from the Jail Blazer days, but LaMarcus Aldridge has the Trail Blazers back in the postseason.
Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Spo
Terry Stotts' Trail Blazers open the 2014 playoffs as the fifth seed in the Western Conference and they square off against a dangerous Houston Rockets club that has beaten them three of the four meetings this season.
Portland’s perspective isn’t about the opponent as much as what it means to be here.
From 1983-2003 the Blazers rolled off 21 consecutive NBA playoff appearances, making the NBA Finals twice and the Western Conference Finals three times. But since the team attempted to rid itself of the Jail Blazers label, it's been a disappointing ride as losses and multiple rebuilding plans have piled up. Portland has missed the postseason seven times in 10 seasons leading into 2013-14.
The three most recent postseason berths for the Trail Blazers ended in the first round.
A young Aldridge had veteran help behind him from 2009-11, but it was a healthy Roy who made the Blazers seemingly on the up and up. Meanwhile, a capable group from Steve Blake to Andre Miller manned the point, and a combination of Marcus Camby, Joel Przybilla and Oden patrolled the paint.
Quite quickly, expectations skewed by the promise of a healthy Roy and Oden were met with first-round exits and then two missed postseasons once the duo moved along because of their injury problems.
Aldridge found himself on an island. He took the leadership role and major steps forward, but the Blazers didn’t have the success. Just last season, the worry grew that he was disgruntled -- the other side of the story pegged him as a gunner who couldn’t play defense. In that sense, it was unfair to wonder if Aldridge could do it himself, but fair to question whether Portland could find help soon enough. Even with Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard finally giving Aldridge a talented sidekick last season, the Blazers won just 33 games in the first year under Stotts.
And then came this season, when Portland got off to a roaring start to the year behind the pick-and-roll mastery between Aldridge and Lillard. It was bigger than that, however.
Not only did the Blazers fill in the bench with Mo Williams and Thomas Robinson, which was enough to make a noticeable difference from the last few seasons. Portland acquired center Robin Lopez from the New Orleans Pelicans in a three-way trade that was more well-known for Tyreke Evans moving to the Big Easy.
Like it was with a rotation of capable shot-blockers during the last three playoff pushes, the defense stiffened up enough to call Portland a middle-of-the-road defensive club with a 17th-ranked defensive ratings of 107.3 points allowed per 100 possessions, up from a 26th-best ranking a year ago, according to Basketball-Reference. And like it was when the future was bright with Roy acting as playmaker, the offense is back to being elite. An average offense has become the second most efficient in the league this season, harking back to the 2008-09 season, when Portland led the league in offensive efficiency despite ranking dead last in pace.
The tie-in to that 2009 first-round exit is easy, but not exactly good for the superstitious mind. The Blazers, the fourth-seeded team then, lost to the fifth-place Rockets in six games.
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