Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Justin Tafoya/Getty Images)
The Portland Trail Blazers tip-off their opening round at 10:30PM ET, Saturday, May 22 against the Denver Nuggets. This will be the first playoff series between the two squads since their seven-game showdown in 2019 that ended in the Blazers favor.
The two teams have sort of mirrored each other, starting as young, underrated, offensively exciting teams that always seem to be a year or two away from being serious contenders. The Nuggets will have to act quickly before they start to hear word of how they continually fail to get over the hump, sentiments that are all too familiar for the Blazers faithful.