A Tale Of Two Cities: Portland vs Denver
The Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers went head-to-head in a crucial season defining game Tuesday night. We know the result; here are the consequences.
In what felt like an early playoff game, the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Denver Nuggets 122–113 for their most important win of the year. 16 Wins’ Blazers writer Brandon Goldner breaks down the big win from the Portland perspective, while Nuggets writer Brendan Vogt tries to put Denver’s disappointment into words.
Rip City View — Brandon Goldner
Both teams knew how important this game was.
With the Blazers holding two tiebreakers over the Nuggets (division AND conference) and the teams’ records deadlocked at 35–38, the implications of winning the season series was somewhat dulled. But no matter; being in better position to snag the 8th spot outright—and perhaps some bragging rights—would be reward enough. Both teams were pumped, and the crowd’s energy reflected that.
Moreover, Nurkić’s first game against his old team since being traded — a team where he was open about his unease with his role — added emotional fuel to a fire that the Blazers didn’t need any help stoking.
With expectations that high, a disappointment game was a strong possibility.
A disappointment game this was not.
You want a torrid offensive pace? You got it! Nikola Jokić vs. Jusuf Nurkić battles? Check! Jameer Nelson turning back the clock..? Okay, that’s kind of weird, but CHECK!
The Portland crowd helped the game along, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all the right points as leads came and went, runs heated up and cooled off, and both teams doing everything in their power not to get embarrassed.
Missing from the fun was former Blazer Mason Plumlee, who finished with 2 boards, 3 dimes, a block, and was held scoreless in 16 minutes.
Current Blazer Jusuf Nurkić, on the other hand, saw this game, stared it down, then crumpled it into a wad, tossed it in his mouth, took a few chews, then spit it out all casual-like.
33 points, 16 boards, 2 dimes, and 3 blocks does a pretty decent job of reflecting his on-court value. Nurkić has been a team-clarifying force, and tonight he was at his zenith, opening up space for Dame and CJ with his screens, finishing capably on the pick-and-roll, sealing opponents to allow for team rebounds, and throwing some serious shade at Denver by “wish[ing] those guys a happy summer” in his projected-to-the-arena postgame interview.
Brutal.
Adding insult to injury, CJ McCollum had the quietest 39–5–3 with a steal you’ve ever seen.
Stack on Damian Lillard’s 19–6–7 with 3 steals and Al-Farouq Aminu’s 15 and 9, and baby, you got a stew goin’.
The Blazers didn’t so much as win this game as they took it and slowly bent it in half like a railroad tie. It was close, but it felt purposeful and methodical.
And it felt like a win from a team that very much intends on making the playoffs.
Playoff Implications
There are big games; there are very big games; and then there are games likes the Nuggets coming to Portland with identical records fighting for the 8th seed.
After a mid-season trade where the Blazers sent Mason Plumlee and a future 2nd to the Denver Nuggets for Nurkić and a 2017 first, The Nuggets were expected to make a playoff push while the Blazers trolled the lottery.
Instead, Nurkić has gotten his fingerprints all over the Blazers’ post-All-Star game surge that has seen them win 13 of 18 and produce the NBA’s 5th-best +/- during that stretch.
With the tiebreakers decided, this game was more about snagging the 8th seed outright, and maybe a little pride. As the Blazers play 6 of their remaining 8 games at home and the Nuggets the opposite, Portland is in much better position to close out the season and secure that playoff spot. And while the 7th seed seems optimistic, the Grizzlies have lost 4 straight and the Blazers are 4 games out with 8 games left.
But if sports teach us anything, it’s that pregame probabilities don’t mean much when a team strings a few runs together, or a series of bad plays makes it harder to dig out of a hole, or a team is tired, or (and you’d hope this never happens) someone gets hurt.
Games are tough to predict, let alone project playoff standings with so many games left. Still, it’s hard not to view this through the lens of, “the Blazers finally figured it out and are making a playoff push.” Add to that a favorable schedule and a new 3rd (or, at times, 2nd) option in Nurkić, and it’s much easier to imagine the Blazers and not Denver getting politely dispatched in 5 by a healthy Warriors squad.
Denver — Brendan Vogt
You will at some point in your life, if you haven’t already, experience a break up. It won’t be great, you won’t feel great, and your feelings about someone will change drastically.
You just hope that you don’t see that person around town, especially if they look good. You really hope that you don’t see them with someone new, especially if that person is kind of a stud. And you definitely hope that they don’t evolve into a better basketball player than you ever imagined while leading the team that you traded them to; to a crucial victory over your team with the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs hanging in the balance.
There are plenty of takeaways from Denver’s loss to Portland on Tuesday, but none more obvious than Jusuf Nurkić taking his ex-team behind the woodshed and showing them who is šef.
33 points, 16 boards, 2 dimes, 3 blocks and one savage post-game interview. That’s all it took for Jusef to win the break up.
One would imagine it was a sight to behold for Portland fans. Nurkić went right after Jokic, and while he displayed flashes of skill, speed, and intelligence, he did much of his damage with brute force and sheer anger.
It was not a sight to behold for Denver fans, as they watched their ex-girlfriend effectively rip their playoff hopes away from them. In the meantime, Mason Plumlee—whom Denver traded Nurkić for—had his worst game as a Nugget. In sixteen minutes of action, he took, and missed, four awful shots—while making a minimal impact on the boards.
Brutal indeed.
It was no surprise to see Nurkić give Jokic trouble on the defensive end, but to see the Joker outplayed wire-to-wire was not something Denver fans were expecting.
His performance is best summarized by coach Mike Malone’s post game quote, via NBA.com:
‘’Jusuf Nurkić kicked our ass’’
What makes it harder to swallow is the fact that the Nuggets held multiple leads in this game, but Portland’s stars took over in the second. Gary Harris was dominated and swallowed up by the star power and bucket-getting abilities of CJ McCollum, who put up a game-high 39 points.
The game was closer than the final score suggests. Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari missed some brutal wide open threes in the second half that looked as though they could swing the momentum, but it was not to be. Both of those players are still getting their legs back underneath them after missing starts, and that definitely showed.
But there are no excuses to be made when a team loses the turnover battle, gets worked on the boards, and relies on a 35-year-old for the bulk of their offense. Jameer Nelson was excellent, but it’s never a good sign when he becomes your go-to scoring option in such an important game.
Hats off to Portland, they wanted it more, and they played better basketball.
Playoff Implications
Devastating. Portland has full control of the 8th seed, and all tie-breaker scenarios. As Brandon mentioned, Portland gets six games at home now, while Denver spends most of their remaining season on the road. To make matters worse, only one of their eight remaining games is against a team that Denver has winning record against this season.
The Nuggets will convert those missed open looks more often than not, but until they turn their defense around dramatically, their playoff hopes are all but dead. Time-and-time again, Nuggets fans have drawn attention to the offensive output since the December 15th line up change. What has gone over-looked is that their troubling tendency to turn the ball over, and the horrific individual and team defense never improved.
Denver just can’t expect to win basketball games when they consistently lose the turnover battle and give up lots of points.
Malone has his work cut out for him here as he’ll have to find some way to rally his squad after such a deflating loss. The season isn’t over, and all it takes is Portland stumbling over their feet multiple times down the stretch for the Nuggets to catch back up. But they missed a huge opportunity here, and it’s all out of their hands for now.
