With the 2008-09 NBA Regular Season coming to and end on Wednesday, the analysts at ESPN shared their season awards. Of the 20 NBA analysts only Jalen Rose, selected Nate McMillan, as the coach of the year. Obviously I'm biased but I was surprised to see such a blatant disregard for the job that Nate and the rest of his coaching staff have done this year. When you look at the numbers how is it possible that Nate didn’t get more national attention? I’m not saying he absolutely should win COY, but damn I think he deserves better than one vote. How is possible that Nate McMillan isn’t even one of the five options for coach of the year on the ESPN SportsNation poll? For God Sakes Erik Spoelstra is one of the options?!?!?

·         This season the Blazers will have won at least 13 more games than they did last season.

·         A 2009 Postseason appearance will successfully end the NBA's longest standing Playoff drought.

·      With the exception of the lockout reduced 1998-99 season, the 2008-09 record of 54-28 (.658) is the team's 2nd best  record in the last 10 years.

·         This Trailblazer squad is the 3rd youngest team in the history of the NBA.

·         According to John Hollinger, the Blazers were the 2nd most offensive efficient team in the League.  

So now that the Blazers are well on their way to clinching a Playoff berth (knock on wood) I have been thinking about what matchup would be better: Blazers vs. Rockets or Blazers vs. Hornets. As of Sunday, the Blazers are in command of the 4th seed in the West. Unless I'm mistaken if the Playoffs started today we would be playing the Rockets with home court advantage. My thinking is that I would rather play the Rockets than the Hornets.Although the Blazers on-ball defense has improved drastically in the last 5 or so games, I still feel like their biggest weakness is PG defense. After trading Rafer Alston to the Magic, the Rockets don’t really have a dynamic PG. Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowery don’t strike fear in my heart the way CP3 does. Sure the Rockets are a great defensive team but I don’t really see how they are going to put points on the board. The Blazers interior D is good enough that Artest, Battier, and Scola will have to settle for outside jumpers. Take into account how fast the Blazers play at home in the Garden, and how poorly the Rockets do in up-tempo basketball (Look at the Rockets 99-86 loss against the Jazz on March 24th  as an example) and I’m feeling pretty confident about that matchup. Obviously the Blazers can’t choose who they will play in the Playoffs and they are going to try and finish up the season with as many wins as possible. My question to the BlazersEdge Nation is if you could choose a Playoff matchup with either the Rockets or Hornets which one would you choose?