it's pretty worthless to have the 2nd ranked offense when your defense is ranked 29th (2020-21)
what matters is the differential. Last season, Blazers were 2nd in offense but 12th in differential. And they certainly looked no better than about the 12th best team in the playoffs
look at the top-10 teams in differential this season:
View attachment 47501
all 8 teams playing in the conference semi-finals were in the top-10. And that tracks about the same every season
also:
View attachment 47502
only 5 of the top-11 teams in offense made it past the first round
maybe this is more a result than predictive; more follow than lead. Still, it's obvious that a team needs to have some balance between offense and defense to climb the ladder to contention