Portland made the playoffs, but not because of its high-powered, two-guard offense. Some observers thought they’d given up when center Mason Plumlee was shipped to Denver – the Trail Blazers’ chief rivals for the 8th playoff slot – in exchange for Jusuf Nurkic AND a first-round pick in the coming draft. How sweet that turned out to be, with Nurkic averaging a double-double over 19 games, Portland going 13-3 in March and rallying from eight games under .500. And they’re still talking about Nurkic’s 28-point, 20-rebound, 8-assist, 6-block game against Philly March 9. Alas, the big Bosnian is iffy (right leg) for the Golden State series – but were it not for his low-post heroics down the stretch the Blazers would already be on summer vacation.