The Portland Trail Blazers' defense didn't function at a playoff-caliber level during the regular season, as they finished ranked 29th in the league in defensive rating (115.3) and 23rd in points allowed per game (114.3).
Will their glaring weaknesses carry over into the playoffs, against MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic and the three-seed Denver Nuggets? The numbers suggest it's a strong possibility. But Trail Blazers veteran center Enes Kanter believes the team is prepared for the tall order at hand, and capable of ending bad habits.
"I think the playoffs are going to be all about how we defend and how we stop Jokic," Kanter told The Zach Gelb Show on Friday. "In my opinion, to stop a guy like that, it's not going to be a one-man challenge. It's going to be a full-team effort, a full-team challenge. And obviously, that guy can make everybody else better around him, so I think the important thing is, we have to be physical with him. You look at last year's bubble games [against Denver], I believe we did a really good job of just getting in his head, being more physical and stuff.
"I think that's the key. Try to be more physical, and obviously don't let him make those easy passes and just make him feel uncomfortable. Other than that, the important thing is to just wear him down... It doesn't matter who is out there. You just can't relax against them... They're obviously a really, really good team and a big, physical team. So, it doesn't matter who is out there or not. Our mentality is go out and bring as much energy as we can to wear them down."
Portland (42-30), which became just the third team since 2000 to finish in the bottom two in defense and make the playoffs, will begin its first-round series against the Nuggets on Saturday night in Denver (10:30 p.m. ET tip).
According to FiveThirtyEight's most recent projections, the Trail Blazers have a 3-percent chance to reach the NBA Finals, and less than a 1-percent chance to win the title.
The entire conversation between Kanter and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.