The Nuggets find themselves in an hole right of the gate as they drop Game 1 of their best-of-7 opening round Western Conference Playoff Series to the Trailblazers, 123-109 at Ball Arena.
Portland, thanks to a big 2nd half were able to erase the Nuggets 9 point 3rd quarter lead, take a 10-point lead heading into the 4th and cruise to the win. The Nuggets led 61-58 at halftime, and despite trailing by 10 heading into the 4th quarter they did cut the Portland lead to 4 a couple of times, but could never ultimately get over that hump. Portland. Denver trimmed the score to 107-103, but and 11-0 run by the Blazers extended the lead to 15, with 3:20 left in the contest
6-Time All-Star Damian Lillard powered the Blazers with 34 points to go along with 13 assists. C.J. McCollum, Lillard's backcourt mate added 21, and a pretty familiar face, Nugget-legend Carmelo Anthony sure looked comfortable in a place he called home for the 1st 8 seasons of his career, pouring in 18 off the bench.
Nikola Jokic, the presumptive NBA MVP, did all he could matched Lillard with 34 points in the game as well as a game high 16 rebounds. But, the Nuggs All-Star center had to take 27 shots to get there, making 14. Michael Porter Jr. had 25 for Denver, as well, but was a horrid 1-10 from behind the 3-point-line.
The Nuggets struggled to defend the 3-point line. Portland shot 47.5 percent from behind-the-arc, knocking down 19-for-40, whereas Denver was just 11-for-36, just 30.6 percent. Head Coach Michael Malone said the effort wasn't the issue, it was execution, and that was a tough pill to swallow considering they had 5 days to get ready for Game 1 following the finale last Sunday in Portland. "It's definitely disappointing," Malone said. Maybe once we see all the mistakes we made tonight, we’re better off Monday night…we gave ourselves a chance, when we were bad, we were really bad defensively…we have to eliminate the amount of mental mistakes to give ourselves a chance against a potent offensive team."
Joker had just 1 assist, a career playoff low. Former Nugget Jusuf Nurkic said postgame "that was our gameplan, we want Jokic to score, so he can't get his teammates involved."
The Nuggets now get about 45 hours to think about the loss, and try to get a split after giving up the home-court-advantage. Game 2 tips off Monday night at 8:00.
Malone, a coaches often do, ended his postgame press conference reminding everyone that it's a game of adjustments, and they'll have to be better than they were in the opener. "There were really no surprises tonight, he said. "They Did what they do, and we tried to do what we do, Obvioulsy Nikola was fantastic, 34 and 16, we just got to get him a little more help."