Sixteen NBA teams earn the right to compete for a championship every spring, but let's be real: It's much less than that.
A select few squads enter the playoffs as genuine title threats. A few more check in as dark-horse contenders. The rest arrive as foregone steppingstones, some just happy to be participating at all, others tricking themselves into believing they can hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Since the championship pack is so exclusive, we need more to discuss. We can only come up with so many fake reasons for why the Portland Trail Blazers have a puncher's hope at beating the Golden State Warriors in a seven-game series.