It's hard to ignore the elephant in the room. For Portland Blazers , it's the unibrow(一字眉) 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. 你很难去忽视一个房间中的大象（一个明明存在的问题，无法被人刻意的回避及无视）。对于波特兰开拓者来说，浓眉就是那个阻碍他们实现梦想的人。上赛季季后赛第一轮被新奥尔良鹈鹕队横扫的阴影依旧困扰着开拓者队。 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.) 不管他们在常规赛的表现如何，“他们在季后赛能做到这些吗？”这样的问题总是会不断困扰着他们。周三雄鹿队以43分的优势战胜了开拓者队（公平地说，这是纽约尼克斯VS密尔沃基雄鹿背靠背之后的第二场比赛，也是雄鹿队连续六场客场之旅中的第五场比赛）。 "We are better than all the teams everyone was hyping," Turner said.To 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. 特纳说：“我们比所有被大家热炒的球队都强。这个赛季，开拓者的精神概括起来就是，他们不是在互相咒骂，也不是在质疑球队管理层。他们就是上场比赛并打出成绩。
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，开拓者过去七个赛季的教练，迟疑地把球队早期的成功归结为持续性，他将利拉德和麦科勒姆的持续进步以及球队的轮换阵容视为他们早期成功的原因。 "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. 斯托茨说：“达米安和CJ依旧是以前的达米安和CJ，但是我们在进攻上得到了更多不同球员的帮助，这让我们赢得了比赛。”波特兰还在继续提高着上赛季已经让每个人吃惊的防守水平。在2016-17赛季，他们还是联盟中十支防守最差的球队之一。而现在他们已经连续两个赛季排进防守前十。 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. 现在，随着赛季的深入，波特兰的球员们似乎认为他们已经蓄势待发。这一次，他们将准备好在季后赛的时候达到顶峰。阿米努同意他们不需要制造轰动，他们只需要保持持续努力。他认为有些球队并不比他们表现得更好。