The Portland Trail Blazers will face off against the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at 7:00 PM, Pacific in the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. Once upon a time, this would have been one of the biggest games of the year, at least emotionally. Is it anymore, though?
I can tell you stories of days of yore. Back in the misty memories of Trail Blazers history Bill Walton’s Blazers beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers on the way to their first and only NBA Championship. Fourteen years later, Clyde Drexler and company would face off against the bitter dregs of Magic Johnson’s Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, still one of the most memorable and disappointing events in Trail Blazers history.