Playoffs Game 1 WCSF: Portland Trail Blazers (3) @ Denver Nuggets (2) - 10:00 PM ET

[ducler]

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[NuggetsWY]

All we need in order to win is for our guards to play solid defense; for our guards & SF to do a lot of moving on offense and for Jokic to take 20 shots per game which should result in points and at least 10 assists. Oh yeah, it wouldn't hurt to have Jokic around 10 rebounds with Millsap & Plumlee each with at least 8 boards (and let's not forget Barton & Craig & Murray & Harris all of whom can grab 4 boards per game).

Yup, defense + boards + Jokic shooting should result in a win!

[THE J0KER]

All we need in order to win is for our guards to play solid defense; for our guards & SF to do a lot of moving on offense and for Jokic to take 20 shots per game which should result in points and at least 10 assists. Oh yeah, it wouldn't hurt to have Jokic around 10 rebounds with Millsap & Plumlee each with at least 8 boards (and let's not forget Barton & Craig & Murray & Harris all of whom can grab 4 boards per game).

Yup, defense + boards + Jokic shooting should result in a win!

To be honest, this game is very unpredictable for me in terms which level of the game we need to beat Blazers tonight, because of I have no idea what to expect from Portland. If Lillard have another spectacular game and Kanter is 100% ready, we really need to be close to our best to win this one, but if Lillard is nothing special today (as NBA TOP10 guard, not TOP3) and Kanter injury issue downs him in the offense and rebounding (in defense he is bad anyway), our casual game should be enough for a routine win!

BTW, it will be interesting to see the mental mindset of former Blazers Plumlee and Barton, in this series, especially in this game#1. And at the end, to quote my last sentence from my much deeper analysis from Nuggets vs Blazers thread:

Game#1 tonight will be probably key in this series, when will Portland have best chances to break us if not today? But I'm less scared than before game#1 of San Antonio series.

[THE J0KER]

Denver is a deeper team than Portland, Harris, Craig, Plumlee, Beasley, and Morris all together scored just 2FG's.

Jokic seems a little bit lazy in the 1st half with just 3 rebs and 2 assists, and not defending too much Kanter, but he compensates much with efficient shooting and 14 points. Denver has a big advantage in bigs this series, but in 1st half Millsap much more tried to explore it than Jokic. I don't get it why Malone reduced Millsap and Murray minutes on 14 in the first half, both looked great.

I'm happy in general with the first half, we used to play much better in the 2nd half, so +3 on halftime is OK.

[skywalker33]

ONE down THREE to go !!!

[TunaFish]

Can Jokic play any better?

[THE J0KER]

Lillard has his 40pts game, Kanter had playoff career-high 26pts, Hood overperformed 17pts from the bench... but I will call this Nuggets win routine! The only way for Portland to beat us in Denver (especially without Nurkic) is a Nuggets very bad day.

On halftime, I complained that half of the team was not involved in this game and that Jokic not explores enough obvious advantage in his matchup. In the 2nd half, it was fixed, so Blazers have no serious chance. Jokic is MVP so far in 2019 playoff (together with Durant), and Murray after awful first three games playing close to an all-star level. Millsap has 17pts in 1st but just 2pts in the 2nd half, but that is OK because we more need his points in 1st.

[NuggetsWY]

Only four Blazers scored in double figures. Then again, only four Nuggets scored in double figures.

Kanter had a remarkable game and of course so did Lillard.

Jokic was the best player in the game and Murray had a very nice game as well. Millsap also had a good game. I loved Craig's game even though his stat line doesn't look great. Barton helped off the bench, even though we expected more from him.

[The Rebel]

IT is too bad Beasley had that slip and fall as that will be what people remember from his game last night, he played much better last night than he had against the Spurs and I hope people realize that.

It appeared that the game plan was to defend the 3 at all costs, I guess it worked, but there were too many open layups for my taste.

Jokic proving once again that he is an elite player and was the best player on the court last night.

I thought Craig did okay on Lillard and Harris shut down McCullom, but I would prefer if they switched those 2, I think Harris would do better on Lillard and Craig can slow down CJ.

Plumlee did considerably better as I expected him too, Barton was still pretty bad in the 1st half but played okay in the 2nd half.

Everybody on the Nuggets seemed much more comfortable on the court last night than they did against the Spurs, I hope that continues and think if it does than this series is over pretty quickly.

[skywalker33]

Everybody on the Nuggets seemed much more comfortable on the court last night than they did against the Spurs, I hope that continues and think if it does than this series is over pretty quickly.

Yeah I was worried about a lapse of focus after the Spurs victory but the showed up well. This will be a great series

[Maf]

I'll be honest. I have quite opposite feelings about this game. I think G7 against Spurs Nuggets played great. Amazing hustle, very smart with basketball, just couldn't hit open shots. This game? Man during those fastbreaks I was screaming mad. Like 4 on 1 ending up with missed three, that one player rebounds and basket on the other side? Too many stupid turn overs. Kanter scoring how many, 16,18 first half points? I feel we were very lucky Blazers couldn't make shots they usually do.

[nayyyyyyyyo09]

With the gaining media attention of this past week on Nikola Jokic, I expect this game to be the most watched Nuggets game of all time. I don’t know if theres a way to check that after the game, hope I can find one. What I do know is I’m the lone fan of the Nuggets here in my area, and this week has been STRANGE to say the least. People have been talking to me about the Nuggets and Jokic particularly more than I’ve every heard and that’s including our franchise record fifty-seven win season. I rarely get an opportunity to talk about the Nuggets with someone because even the most into it NBA fans here seem to never watch nuggets games or fully grasp how the team works. I have friends who have been paying close attention to the NBA and they’re just noticing who Torrey Craig is and how vital he is to our success. We’re beginning to get recognized by the NBA in a much larger fashion and I can’t help but believe that’s going to bump our viewers up more than it ever has.

[SkillzFromThe6]

IT is too bad Beasley had that slip and fall as that will be what people remember from his game last night, he played much better last night than he had against the Spurs and I hope people realize that.

It appeared that the game plan was to defend the 3 at all costs, I guess it worked, but there were too many open layups for my taste.

Jokic proving once again that he is an elite player and was the best player on the court last night.

I thought Craig did okay on Lillard and Harris shut down McCullom, but I would prefer if they switched those 2, I think Harris would do better on Lillard and Craig can slow down CJ.

Plumlee did considerably better as I expected him too, Barton was still pretty bad in the 1st half but played okay in the 2nd half.

Everybody on the Nuggets seemed much more comfortable on the court last night than they did against the Spurs, I hope that continues and think if it does than this series is over pretty quickly.

Craig did great on Lillard? I only saw Dame get like 2 layups and 5+ bricked shots when Craig was on him.