For me it's Lin. He's been awesome, awful and average this year. If awesome or average shows up I like our chances. Jones would be my second pick for similar reasons.
Harden can't be the X factor by definition because he's James Mother Falcon Harden. But he'll be the main reason we beat the Blazer.
Precisely; Dwight has to defend like a cornered honey badger to make up for the defensive deficiencies of the PFs, SFs, SGs and Lin. I think Asik will play a lot of minutes in this first round series as he may be in better game shape than Dwight at the moment, and we'll need complete lockdown defense from the C position for all 48 minutes.
I agrees with this. Dwight needs to prove he's worth. In a playoff setting with much more intensive defense and more reliance on half court offense, Dwight needs to be the pivot. Our offensive edge will somewhat impacted by the much slower pace. It's crucial for Dwight to create some open shots for the shooters
Not sure what it means to see so many xfactors candidates. I guess it means we are completely expecting Harden and Howard to show up. So that leave it to everyone else, but really, we know Parson is quite consistent and Bev is consistently defensively. That leaves it up to Lin, Jones, Asik as the primary xfactors. Jones has been consistently bad against Blazer, Asik hasn't play much against them and Lin is Lin. I said it's between the twin tower, so Asik and Lin.
i think it's dwight. "howard will perform as he always does" isn't saying much, since he's been as inconsistent this year as anyone else. one game, his inside game will get going and he will post 20+ on 10-12 shots. another game will post 10 on 7 shots with 5 TO's. our two superstars need to be that much better and that much more productive then the other team's stars. harden will no doubt have a huge edge on his counterpart. howard needs to win his match up but that's far from a sure thing. if he dominates the paint defensively and offensively like he's paid to do, we're set.
I think the X-Factor is Jones. I expect Bev to hound Lilliard, and Lin to drive-and-dish. I expect How-sik to dominate the paint I expect Harden to carve up Portland's D and Parsons to make it rain. I worry about Jones matching up with Asik. LAM has feasted on him every game and I doubt that'll change. Hope the young bottle-rocket can step up his defense and get his shot right.
I voted Daniels, then I realize he may not even make the playoff roster. He should. The majority of the people are correct: it will be Lin. If he is the 4th quarter San Antonio Lin, it will be game over. We are pretty much unbeatable when he is good.
Fail of the poll not including Asik while Daniels is in, are you kidding me? X-factor is Bev's defense on Lilliard. If he can contain him like he did in reg. season Por will only have one superstar to go with and that won't gonna cut it.
As much as I like him, LMA tends to guard himself. He settles for horrible shots A LOT. Sure, he'll get his, but how many Portland possessions will it take him to do so? He might absolutely torch us in some matches, but over the course of a playoff series , it will probably even out a bit and his inefficient shot selection will show. ps: Asik is the X-factor to the point that he stealthily eluded the poll itself. I voted for Bev, though I hope he doesn't go all OKC on us and gets more involved in his own mindgames than the opponent does.
