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After getting swept in the first round of the playoffs for two straight seasons, Portland got past this year around via a 4-1 series win over rivals OKC. Denver got rid of San Antonio in seven games in what was their first playoff series win since the days when Melo used to don a Nuggets jersey.
Within 48 hours of eliminating the Spurs, Mike Malone and his Nuggets were ready to face off Lillard's Trail Blazers for Game 1 of the West semis. What transpired rather came as a shock considering the grind Denver had just been through for a gruelling seven-game bout. The Nuggets stole game 1 at home 121-113 over the Blazers and took a 1-0 lead heading into the second matchup.
"I thought our guys did a really good job responding after Game 7," Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said. "Jamal, Nikola, Paul were terrific, while guys off the bench like Malik and Mason really stepped up. I'm proud of our guys for showing up."
Although both of these teams haven't had deep playoff runs lately, there seems to be no shortage of talent on both sides to make one this year. However, it seems timely to focus on the fact that the Trail Blazers just might be going for gold this year, and that the Nuggets could very well be just another obstacle.
In this piece, we'll follow up on a fairly unpopular opinion which sheds light on the possibility of Portland eliminating the West's 2nd seed as the series progresses, so let's get to it.
#1 Denver Nuggets do not look like a playoff-ready team
In a first-round matchup between the 2nd and 7th seed, nobody really expects the series to stretch long enough for a Game 7. But, the San Antonio Spurs - who finished 6 games behind Denver on the West leaderboard - made sure it was not a cakewalk for the West's second best team. In fact, it went all the way down to a one-legged floater by Jamal Murray in the final seconds of the game to get rid of the pesky Spurs.
The NBA postseason is relentless. So one doesn't really get the time and headspace to actually analyse the dynamics of one series before the next one kicks off. Hence, nobody could really pay much heed to the fact that the Ginobili-less Spurs could drag the Finals contenders of this year all the way to the last minute of Game 7 in the first round itself.
But as the name of the game goes, here we are.
#2 Lillard and his Trail Blazers are coming for blood this year around
The Portland Trail Blazers are the definition of resilience and a great one at that. Despite losing their main scoring center in Jusuf Nurkic to a season-ending injury just before the playoffs, the Blazers have shown they have enough talent and willpower on the floor in store when things go south.
Averaging around 35 points per game in the playoffs so far and having hit one of the coldest buzzer beaters in the history of the game to eliminate OKC in round 1, Dame has lived up to the hype. The All-star point guard racked up 39 points again in Game 1 but the Nuggets slipped away with the W somehow.
No doubt the Nuggets were successful in curtailing Lillard's scoring in the regular season, but that doesn't help the fact that he's soaring as the brightest spot in the NBA postseason this year, right next to Kevin Durant.
#3 Overall statistics support the aforementioned belief to a large extent
According to official NBA numbers, the Spurs-Nuggets series was the slowest series of all first round matchups this year, with just 93.1 possessions per team per 48 minutes. To go along with that, Jokic and his Nuggets lost the opening quarter in five of the seven games.
During the regular season, the Nuggets allowed the pick-and-roll ball handlers to score just 0.83 point per possession. However, this went up to 0.98 against the Spurs and keeping in mind how well the Trail Blazers execute the pick-and-roll with Lillard at the top of key, this comes as a bonus.
On the other hand, the Trail Blazers were the best three-point shooting team(40.5%) in the first round, along with holding the Thunder to under a point per possession in three of the five games. Portland also lead the postseason in terms of time of possession with an average of 23.8 minutes per game.
