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Game 2 Pregame Notes: Limiting Turnovers, Kanter's Shoulder And Hood's Emergence

DENVER -- After the three-seed Trail Blazers fell 121-113 to the two-seed Nuggets Monday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, the two Northwest Division teams meet again in the "Mile High City" for Game 2 Wednesday night (tipoff scheduled for 6 p.m. on TNT). Some notes going into Game 2...

• Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts often notes there typically isn’t just one factor that is the difference between a win and a loss. A host of different issues play out throughout the course of a 48-minute game, so there usually isn’t just one variable that dictates the result.

But some times, there are singular issues that define whether or not a team goes home happy, and in Game 1 Monday night in Denver, that issue for the Trail Blazers was turnovers. They shot well enough to win (52 percent from the field and 38 percent from three), made the same number of field goals as the Nuggets (41), scored more points in the paint (56 to 50), more second chance points (15 to 13) and won the rebounding battle (40-34). Usually that’s enough to come away with a win, but not if you turn the ball over 18 times for 23 points, as the Blazers did Monday night at the Pepsi Center.

"We had some soft plays, soft turnovers, especially at the end of the half," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "The other ones driving into the lane, there was a couple of offensive fouls. But there’s no question the turnovers hurt us. It was a good offensive game, but I thought the turnovers really made the difference."

The Nuggets certainly played a part forcing many of those turnovers -- Mason Plumlee logged five steals while Nikola Jokic and Gary Harris each tallied two blocks -- but many of Portland's issues with turnovers seemed to come down to inattentive play and a lack of focus, something that was not often seen during their elimination of the Thunder in five games.

"When we turn the ball over, especially live ball turnovers, they get out in transition and they capitalize on it, get their fans involved," said Rodney Hood. "We're gonna turn the ball over -- not the lazy turnovers like I think we had -- but I think that's the biggest thing, the glaring thing, to control the pace. They're gonna play their game and they're going to do things but we can control what we can control."

While they'll likely need to play better in all facets Wednesday night to take Game 2 in Denver -- the Nuggets, having played a Game 7 versus the Spurs less than 48 hours before returning to the court for Game 1 Monday night, will likely turn in improved effort as well -- simply cutting down their unforced turnovers might be enough to even the series before heading back to Portland for Games 3 and 4.

"We've just got to make better passes, make better plays, be more crisp," said CJ McCollum. "Some of it was us trying to make a play but either the pass was off or it was too weak or it's too crowded so we seen it too late. Just tighten some things up, try to prevent those from happening in Game 2."

• Portland's first round series versus Oklahoma City didn't really provide Rodney Hood a chance to showcase his offensive repertoire. He did an admirable job defensively, playing an important role in slowing Thunder forward Paul George and his counterparts on the Thunder bench, but he could never get going on the offensive end, shooting just 24 percent from the field and 27 percent from three to score a total of 15 points in the series.

"Last series, Paul George was in the second unit," said Hood. "He's one of the best defenders, so he was guarding me a lot, so the action was more toward Seth (Curry) and Evan (Turner) posting up."

But in Game 1, Hood's matchup with Denver's smaller, second-unit defenders gave the 6-6 wing a chance to show they Portland acquired him from Cleveland at the trade deadline. After never scoring more than five points in five games against the Thunder, Hood went 5-of-10 from the field and 3-of-4 from three for 15 points in Monday's Game 1 loss.

"This series, they're playing me one-on-one in the post and I like my odds in that," said Hood. "I'm sure they'll try to make an adjustment, but just finding mismatches -- myself, Evan, Moe -- those easy points were we don't have to rely on CJ and Dame and Enes, it's really big for our team. Continue to find those mismatches."

As noted, Hood will likely garner more attention defensively in Game 2 after his performance in Game 1, but if that opens up opportunities for his teammates, all the better.

• The main story line going into Game 1, at least for the Trail Blazers, was the status of Enes Kanter's injured left shoulder. The 6-11 center, who averaged 13.2 points on 55 percent shooting, 10.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 29 minutes per game to help the Blazers eliminate the Thunder in five games, suffered a shoulder injury in Portland's series-clinching victory.

Though Kanter was listed as questionable going into Game 1, he noted on multiple occasions that he wouldn't allow the injury to keep him from missing a playoff game. He ultimately played 33 minutes in Portland's Game 1 loss on Monday, going 11-of-14 from the field for 26 points and seven rebounds.

"To go 11-of-14, they're all in the paint, he's battling defensively. He played through it," said Terry Stotts of his starting center. "I only saw him grimace really once and that was on the dunk, otherwise he's playing through it. I think the (health and performance) department did a nice job of helping him with his recovery and giving him a good tape job. I couldn't ask for anything more."

While Kanter had mentioned prior to Game 1 that he would get an injection to help deal with the discomfort caused by the injury, he said on Tuesday that the team medical staff opted for other medications so that Kanter could see how his shoulder felt after nearly a week of rest. While it didn't seem to limit him too much offensively, it did change just how much he could contest on the defensive end.

"Especially in my position, I try to play physical in every possession," said Kanter. "But I think it sucks that I cannot really play the way I want to play because of my shoulder, because I'm always worrying about it, what if it gets worse."

Kanter noted on Tuesday that his shoulder hasn't improved -- it would be a wonder if it did after Kanter spent much of Game 1 defending Nuggets center Nikola Jokic -- but he's no longer listed on the injury report, which is more of an admission that he's not going to miss Game 2 than an indication that he's now healthy.

"It's the same," said Kanter. "I don't even know how many hours I sleep the last four or five days. It's been tough. But like I said, it's the playoffs, either win or go home so I cannot worry about my shoulder or my health because we worked so hard whole season. So we've just got to go out there and do our job."