NBA Playoffs Prediction: Portland's Most Favorable First Round Matchup

There are plenty of different scenarios in which the NBA season could come to an end and this creates quite a few possible matchups in the Western Conference Playoffs.

As of now, the Portland Trail Blazers stand at eighth place in the Western Conference, with a record of 47-30.

They are only a half game behind the San Antonio Spurs for the seventh seed with five games left in the regular season.

If Portland secures the seventh seed, they would face one of the four teams now tied for the second seed: Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, and Utah.

If you had to pick out of that group of teams, my opinion is that the Dallas Mavericks present the most favorable matchup for the Blazers.

Portland is undefeated against Dallas this year with a 3-0 record, whereas they are 1-3 against Denver, 0-4 against the Utah Jazz, and 2-1 versus the Phoenix Suns.

Logically, the Trail Blazers would want to face Dallas, the team who they have the best record against.

The personnel matchup also seems to favor Portland against Dallas.

Andre Miller has been lights out this year against the Mavericks, highlighted by his 52- point outburst in an overtime win.

Dallas lacks the lock-down defender to matchup against Brandon Roy, which could lead to a jaw-dropping performance by Roy throughout the series.

Nicolas Batum should continue his solid defense in locking down Caron Butler.

My only worry in the potential series would be Dirk Nowitzki. However, Dirk hasn't seemed dominant against Portland this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see that continue through the playoffs.

No matter how the playoff matchups work out, I'd love to see the look on Mark Cuban's face if the Blazers take the first round series from his Dallas Mavericks.