開拓者 東山再起未可知

It's hard to ignore the elephant in the room. For Portland Blazers , it's the unibrow that haunts their dreams. The embarrassing sweep suffered at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of last season's playoffs still hangs over the Blazers.

你很難去忽視一個房間中的大象（一個明明存在的問題，無法被人刻意的迴避及無視）。對於波特蘭開拓者來說，濃眉就是那個阻礙他們實現夢想的人。上賽季季後賽第一輪被新奧爾良鵜鶘隊橫掃的陰影依舊困擾着開拓者隊。

No matter how well they do in the regular season, the question of "can they do it in the playoffs?" will always be there to undercut them. It was certainly in the air after the Bucks chewed them up in a 43-point win on Wednesday (which, to be fair, was the second game of a New York–Milwaukee back-to-back and the fifth of six straight games on the road.)

不管他們在常規賽的表現如何，“他們在季後賽能做到這些嗎？”這樣的問題總是會不斷困擾着他們。週三雄鹿隊以43分的優勢戰勝了開拓者隊（公平地說，這是紐約尼克斯VS密爾沃基雄鹿背靠背之後的第二場比賽，也是雄鹿隊連續六場客場之旅中的第五場比賽）。

"We are better than all the teams everyone was hyping," Turner encapsulate the spirit of the Blazers this season, it's that they're not cursing each other out or challenging the front office at practice. They are simply going about their business and thriving.

特納說：“我們比所有被大家熱炒的球隊都強。這個賽季，開拓者的精神概括起來就是，他們不是在互相咒罵，也不是在質疑球隊管理層。他們就是上場比賽並打出成績。

Stotts, the Blazers' coach the past seven seasons, is hesitant to chalk up all of this season's early success to continuity alone, citing Lillard's and McCollum's consistent improvement plus the rotating cast of contributors as reasons for their early success.

斯托茨，開拓者過去七個賽季的教練，遲疑地把球隊早期的成功歸結爲持續性，他將利拉德和麥科勒姆的持續進步以及球隊的輪換陣容視爲他們早期成功的原因。

"Dame and CJ have been Dame and CJ, but already we're getting contributions from different guys offensively that have helped us win games," Stotts said. Portland has also continued the defensive improvement that surprised everyone last season. Back in 2016-17, they were one of the 10 worst defensive teams in the league. Now they have a shot at a second straight season with a top-10 defensive unit.

斯托茨說：“達米安和CJ依舊是以前的達米安和CJ，但是我們在進攻上得到了更多不同球員的幫助，這讓我們贏得了比賽。”波特蘭還在繼續提高着上賽季已經讓每個人吃驚的防守水平。在2016-17賽季，他們還是聯盟中十支防守最差的球隊之一。而現在他們已經連續兩個賽季排進防守前十。

For now, Portland's players seem to think they are already in good position to keep rolling as the season wears on—and that this time, they'll be ready to peak come playoff time. Aminu agrees that they don't need to make a splash, they're just really consistent. He thinks there are some teams where it's not as good as we have it here.

現在，隨着賽季的深入，波特蘭的球員們似乎認爲他們已經蓄勢待發。這一次，他們將準備好在季後賽的時候達到頂峯。阿米努同意他們不需要製造轟動，他們只需要保持持續努力。他認爲有些球隊並不比他們表現得更好。

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