There is, in fact, a silver lining to the first-round deficits that the Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers face: Each team has a chance to make NBA playoff history.To assume this stance is to push the boundaries of optimism. Falling behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven series is by no means a blessing disguised as a working, safety-pin-packed voodoo doll. In every past case, it has been a postseason death sentence.History tells us a 3-0 mountain is one that cannot be climbed. No team has ever successfully crawled out of this hole, according toWhoWins.com. If any of the Mavericks, Bucks or Blazers do it, it would be a first.Still, these three squads are alive and in position to both make and defy history, after answering the call to arms in Game 4 and, in Milwaukee's case, Game 5.Determining which team is more equipped to tackle the seemingly impossible task at hand is a matter of matchups. It depends not only on their ability to play better but on the vulnerability of the squads they're competing against.Injuries, wins and losses, momentum and individual player performances all factor into any possible revivals. Every potential advantage, big or small, matters. It's all about finding out which reeling playoff outfit has the best chance to complete a comeback to shame all other comebacks.3. Dallas Mavericks(3-1 Deficit)Rest easy, Houston Rockets fans. Y'all should be fine.The Mavericks scraped together a 121-109 victory in Game 4 to stave off elimination Sunday night, setting up another win-or-go-home tilt. At some point, whether it's in Game 5 or later on, they are more likely to go home.Losing Chandler Parsons to a right-knee injury stings. The offense was markedly better with him on the floor during the regular season, and he does things with the ball that neither Al-Farouq Aminu nor Richard Jefferson can.It also doesn't help that Devin Harris is banged up, Raymond Felton is receiving actual playing time and that the Mavericks remain incapable of disrupting the existing pick-and-roll synergy between James Harden, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith. Thislast weakness will be their undoing.Neither team is defending particularly well or, for that matter, at all. Both offenses are pumping in more than 111.5 points per 100 possessions, and three of the first four contests quickly became foregrounds for shootouts.Viewed in a vacuum, the Mavericks should have a puncher's chance at surviving through Game 5 and beyond. Rajon Rondo's exile has them humming on the offensive end. In the 155 minutes they've played without him thus far, they've outscored Houston by 9.3 points per 100 possessions. Their most-used postseason lineup is also proving to be a world-wolfer. J.J. Barea, Monta Ellis, Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler and Aminu are posting a net rating north of 50 when on the floor together.Here's the thing: The Rockets are built to beat the Mavericks at their own game. Though they haven't been the ideal offensive team, they run smaller lineups that combat Dallas' floor spacing and have enough firepower to explode on any given nightkind of like they did in Games 1, 2 and 3.Plus, defensive stands have to take precedence at some point, even in a series like this. And the Rockets, a top-six defensive unit during the regular season, have the abilityas in a healthy Howardto stifle the incisive drives that fueled Dallas' offensive outbreaks in Games 3 and 4.Conversely, the Mavericks enjoy no such fortitude. Chandler is being overworked at the rim, facing a playoff-high 15.8 point-blank looks per game; Ellis is getting burned on the perimeter; watching Nowitzki defend is like being forced to sit through all the sad parts ofBambi on a loop; and the Mavericks are fouling like crazy.Worse, their lone victory was almost a loss. They trailed by as many as 12 points in Game 4 and, as ESPN Stats & Information noted, won in large part because Houston went cold on offense:Maybe the Mavericks will eke out a win in Game 5. Maybe they'll even make this series and all its remaining games interesting. After all, they've shown that when fielding the right lineups, their offense can carry them.But their comeback will only last as long as they outplay what is a clearly superior team. So, not much longer.2. Milwaukee Bucks (3-2 Deficit)With two of the four requisite wins in the bank, the Bucks seem like an obvious choice to check in at No. 1 on the hopeless-turned-hopeful scale.Not only did they thoroughly outclass the Bulls in Monday's 94-88 victory, but the entire series has been a tightly contested affair. Only one game has been decided by double digits, while three have been decided by seven points or less.Let's be real, though: The Bucks are a feel-good story with an expiration date.To be sure, this is more about the Bulls. No, Michael Carter-Williams won't go full Magic Johnson every night as he did in Game 4. And yes, the Bucks are defensively disruptive. And sure, had a few more shots fallen in Game 3, it would be them holding a 3-2 lead.Yet, while we cannot discount what the Bucks are doing, these are the Bulls. They have never been healthier, and even in losses, they almost win.Only two things really have to worry them: Derrick Rose and the collective level of disinterest shown in Games 4 and 5.Rose was shut down in each of the last two contests after performing like an All-Star through the first three. He has hit just 10 of his last 33 shots and isn't enjoying the freedom to roam in and out of the paint at his leisure.The Bucks continue to bank on his three-point accuracy regressing to the mean and, most importantly, are doing a much better job of cutting off his paths to the basket when he doesn't settle for outside looks:By crowding Rose's driving lanes, the Bucks are forcing him to make quicker decisions with the ball, inciting a sense of urgency he isn't coping with well. He has 14 turnovers in Chicago's two losses, many of which are the product of snap judgments and attempts to thread the needle through traffic:If Rose can regain his outside touch (he was 2-of-11 from deep in Games 4 and 5) or even just make smarter passes, it'll make life that much easier for the Bulls. He's been a liability on the defensive end, so they need his offensive production to offset the big plays he's giving up to Milwaukee (see everything Carter-Williams did in Game 5).More than that, the Bulls need to regain their composure. They've been collectively sloppy with the ball (41 combined turnovers in losses) and aren't defending with the same vigor that helped them win Games 1 and 2.And they know it.As Taj Gibson said, via CBS Chicago's Coby Westerlund and Bulls.com's Sam Smith:This is a team that tends to thrive under adverse circumstances. Rose misses all of 2012-13; the Bulls win 45 games. He misses most of 2013-14; they win 48.They enter the postseason with a smattering of doubt after an underwhelming 50-win 2014-15 campaign; they jump out to a 3-0 series lead over the Bucks.Transcending obstacles is the Bulls' business, and the Bucks, through no fault of their own, remain just another obstacle.If their defensive stands hold, there's a chance they'll force a Game 7, putting themselves in position to advance in shocking fashion. But as much as the Bucks' last two wins are about their resilience, they're also about the Bulls not playing like the Bulls.1. Portland Trail Blazers (3-1 Deficit)Take this as a sign of how much Mike Conley means to the Memphis Grizzlies.Conley didn't play in the Grizzlies' 99-92 Game 4 loss Monday night after having surgery to repair a facial fracture near his left eye that he suffered in Game 3. The timetable for his returnif he returns at allis unknown, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.No series lead is safe for the Grizzlies now. Not even their commanding 3-1 edge. As CBS Sports' Matt Moore reminded us, Conley is that valuable:Put it this way: Conley is to Memphis what Rondo never was to Dallas. The Grizzlies are a net minus without him on the floor for the playoffs, and it's no coincidence thatDamian Lillard shot himself out of a postseason slump without Conley smothering him on the perimeter."I've never seen him like that," Nicolas Batum said of Lillard's Game 4 approach, viaThe Oregonian's Joe Freeman. "Not like that. Not with so much passion. There was blood in his eyes."Not one of the Rockets or Bulls is being forced to survive the absence of a game-changer like Conley, meaning the Blazers have an opportunity to strike in ways the Mavericks and Bucks cannot.In addition to Lillard's catching fire at the right time (21-of-40 from the floor through Games 3 and 4), C.J. McCollum and Meyers Leonard (31 combined points in Game 4) are both starting to take advantage of a Memphis defense that's more concerned with, well, everyone else.Logic also dictates that Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph won't suppress LaMarcus Aldridge forever. He's shooting 34 percent for the series (32-of-94) and is overdue for a breakout performance. And if that performance comes in Game 5, the Blazers, who had the Western Conference's third-best home record for the regular season, could head back to Moda Center with an opportunity for a Game 7.Even if that trademark Aldridge performance doesn't come, the Blazers have shown they can win ugly. They shot just 41.4 percent from the field in Game 4 and still won. They were minus-13 at the free-throw line for Game 3 and almost won.Wins and losses like those are telling. They're encouraging.Combined with Memphis' Conley-less offense, they're reasons to believe that Portland has what it takes to make this a series yet.Stats courtesy ofBasketball-Reference.comandNBA.comunless otherwise cited.DanFavalecovers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter:@danfavale.
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