The Nuggets tied their opening round series with Portland up at 1 game apiece with a strong performance at Ball Arena to win Game 2, 128-109 Monday night at Ball Arena.
Denver’s goal was to keep the Blazers from beating them with 3’s and while they likely didn’t do that (16-of-33/48.5 percent), they were so good on the offensive side, and played good enough team defense to keep the Blazers at arm’s length most of Game 2 and win going away.
And the biggest key In game 1, the Blazers bench outscored the Nuggs by 14, 34-20. Monday night the roles were reversed and the Nuggets bench out-dueled the Blazers reserves, 35-14.
The game's two best players, both played like the game's two best players, as both Nikola Jokic and Damian Lillard both did all they could to help their respective teams. Joker looked like the MVP, leading Denver with 38 points on 15-of-20 shooting, to go along with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Dame-time had a game high 42, on 11-of-24 shots, 9 of those 11 shots were 3-pointers.
Monte Morris on Aaron Gordon's 2nd half defense "with his length, he took the challenge on slowing him down, he only made 1 3 in the in the 2nd half, he's a great player, we gotta keep showing him different looks..."
The game was certainly chippy from the jump and in the first quarter, Carmelo Anthony sent Joker to the round with a bit of a body check, "just a push in the back, and I kind of didn't want to get into the screen," Jokic said. "So, I just kind of fell, it was a real aggressive play."
Michael Porter Jr. had 18 for Denver and Aaron Gordon added 13. Paul Millsap led the bench scoring with 15.
The series shifts to Portland for the next 2 games, Game 3 tips Thursday night at Moda Center at 8:30