J.D. Skeets

I think these are two very similar teams, actually, the Trailblazers and the Suns.

They both force a lot of turnovers.

They both offensive rebound quite a bit.

Possession game will be big.

Both of them, I think, are vulnerable to offensive rebounding as well.

But Portland is 30th in turnovers post-All-Star.

So that makes me a little nervous for a team that hasn't played in any big games.

Not that this version of the Suns has played in big games together, but they got some big game experience with Booker Brooks.

These guys that have been around and either team scores a ton in the paint.

So to me, this is probably going to be a jump shooting game.

And Phoenix has been a better jump shooting team than Portland has.

I also don't really know what to make of Phoenix right now because they really struggled in March and April.

They were also missing Brooks for a huge amount of time.

Booker was in and out of the lineup.

We talked about Mark Williams' absence quite a bit as well.

So I don't really know how good Phoenix can be.

They were a better team at their peak, I think, this season than Portland was.

So I'm probably going with the Suns here unless Drew Holiday could have a big game.

He's probably the X factor to me on the Portland side.

The other thing with the Suns, too, at least over the last couple weeks, it feels like they've just been locked into the seventh seed.