The Nuggets couldn’t sustain an impressive first half as they lost 123-109 to the visiting Portland Trail Blazers.
Ball Arena was rocking as the nearly 8,000 (a sellout with current provisions) in attendance were pumped up at the first playoff action in Denver in two years. The fans were also sparked by a surprise appearance by injured Nuggets’ star Jamal Murray, who gave a “championship on three” rallying cry to those in the stadium.
With a loud, boisterous crowd sparked by each Nuggets play, the hosts built a nine-point lead early in the third quarter. Things would unravel from that point on as Portland responded with a 13-4 run to even the score at 73. Denver would never regain the lead from that point.
"Too many breakdowns; to win a playoff game, especially when you're under-manned, you have to be on-point with everything. Great discipline with the game plan, great discipline in terms of guarding their personnel, and we didn't have it," Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said.
Nikola Jokić led the Nuggets with 34 points and 16 rebounds. Damian Lillard broke out of his recent struggles against Denver to lead the Trail Blazers with 34 points and 13 assists.
Denver will look to even up the series Monday when it hosts Portland in Game 2 (ALTITUDE, TNT, 8 p.m. MT) of the series.
Here are the takeaways:
Three-point disparity costly
Portland shot 19-of-40 from downtown and while Denver hit 11-of-36. That summed up the night for Malone’s team. The Nuggets struggled to defend the three and struggled to find any rhythm on the other end.
"The No. 1 concern was going to be 'can we guard the three-point line?' You look at the three regular-season matchups, in our two wins, I think they averaged 13 made threes, in their one win, they made 18. Obviously, tonight, it went up to 19," Malone said.
Jokić echoed those thoughts.
“Damian [Lillard] is creating a lot and then whoever is rolling, Nurk [Jusuf Nurkic] or [Enes] Kanter is passing to the corner and we just need to fly around," the center explained. "They're going to get those shots. They know that they're going to get [them], we know that they're going to get them. It's just multiple efforts, make them tough, make them shoot over, contested shots. That's something that we can look forward to, just to make it harder.”
Some of Denver’s more reliable three-point threats in Michael Porter Jr., Austin Rivers, Monte Morris, JaMychal Green, Markus Howard combined for 3 of 19. On the other end, the Nuggets were hurt by the performances of Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Carmelo Anthony who hit four or more threes on the night.
The Nuggets weren’t done any favors at the charity stripe either. The team shot just eight free throws, connecting on four. Portland went to the line 19 times and missed one. The hosts will need to improve in both areas if they want to even things up Monday.
Joker continues postseason magic
This is Jokić’s favorite time of year and the center lived up to his previous playoff dominance with another strong offensive performance against the Blazers. The center shot 14 of 27 on the night in 35 minutes and seemingly found his three-point touch again – hitting three shots from downtown.
Jokić was scorching early on as he put up 13 on 6 of 9 shooting in the opening quarter. The 26-year-old would enter the break with 22 points and the Nuggets held a 61-58 lead. Despite the end result, Jokić was a big reason why Denver held 52-39 points in the paint advantage over Portland – one of the few bright spots in Game 1.
Entering Saturday’s contest, Jokić averaged 24.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and shot 51.3 percent from the field and 41.6 percent from three in 33 playoff appearances.
Ball movement stagnates
If there was one area that should raise an alarm, it was Jokić dropping just one dime on the night. That’s not an indictment on the Nuggets’ all-world center, but rather a telling sign of the lack of movement throughout the night from the team overall.
"They were playing me straight-up. They were getting under the pick-and-rolls," Jokić said. "They didn't have that much on my drive or post-ups; it was that kind of night.”
Portland had 29 assists to six turnovers, while Denver had 22 dimes to eight giveaways – which the visitors converted into 13 points. Even without several key players, the Nuggets have remained one of the NBA’s elite teams due to their emphasis on cutting and spreading the ball. The team finished fifth in the NBA in assists at 26.8 per contest. There were too many times against Portland Saturday where Denver settled for poor shots or didn’t consider an extra pass.