Playoffs Game 2 WCSF: Portland Trail Blazers (3) @ Denver Nuggets (2) - 9:00 PM ET

[ducler]

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[NuggetsWY]

The Blazers will probably have a new play to deal with Jokic - not sure that will help, or I hope it won't.

Murray needs to score more consistently on offense and play better one-one-one defense.

Harris & Craig need to move more on offense - get those easy buckets at the basket.

Barton & Beasley need to score at least double figures.

Could someone please teach Plumlee that he can not cover guards outside and he needs to focus less on guarding them and more on switching back towards the middle?

Hope: Malone finally put Barton back on the bench. Will Malone be willing to be a little more flexible? He's got his 9 man rotation but he's also got Hernangomez & Lyles sitting on the bench. Either one might be able to help. Hernangomez, if he's hot, could open things up. Lyles just might be a better fit against Portland than he would have been against San Antonio.

[Manolito]

Let's see how Portland tries to guard Jokic. I would not be surprised seing him paired with Aminu.

Kanter scored 26points but with him on the floor Denver had 125 OffRating. Jokic got 80% TS and Murray 67%

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[skywalker33]

I expect POR to double Jokic, they'll be hoping our shooters can't keep up from the outside. I'm wondering who'll be guarding Lillard, he's the only Blazer I feel has a chance to control this game from their side.

[TunaFish]

Craig was guarding Lillard until he got into foul trouble. Harris will get some minutes here as well. They hid Murray leaving him on the small forward who setup outside to clear space. Their forwards seem to be mostly defensive minded. I think Portland will rethink their response to this defense and try and get switches to go at Murray as much as possible.

[THE J0KER]

• Teams that win the first two games of a best-of-seven series at home go on to win the series 94.0% of the time (236-15). Since 1984 only: 93.9% of the time (184-12).

Match Point?

[THE J0KER]

With 6-8-3 (fg3-5) numbers Jokic is statistically the best player in the 1st half from both teams, but he is the one to be blamed the most for halftime -15 deficit and Nuggets scandalous just 35 points in the first half! The player which scored 37 and 43 in last 3 games had just one attempt in the whole 1st quarter (5 in 1st half overall).

It is not over yet, Denver several times this season overturn the double-digit deficit in the 2nd half, but 15pts is the giant difference. Except for much more aggressive Jokic, we need much better shooting from our point guards, Murray+Morris 2-16 is terrible. This looks like a bad joke that Denver is going to lose home court advantage thanks to half in which Lillard and McCollum shooted 4-17.

[THE J0KER]

We lose this game already in the 1st half. Actually, we have some chance in the third quarter, but Jokic makes two silly fouls which Malone managed in a bad way. He should just to ignore Jokic fouls because he is the only ones today who makes some difference in Denver favor, despite this is his worst game this playoff. So Jokic was about 8 minutes on the bench, enough for Portland 2nd unit to raise their lead from +8 to +16. When Jokic is finally back we have a final push, but a couple of times we missed the opportunity to reduce their lead on just one possession.

[The Rebel]

That was some ugly shooting, the fact that we were even close tells me that I think we win this series, as we usually will not miss that many shots but we absolutely can control the glass and stop the Trailblazers.

I hope Craig and Murray are okay to go for game 3, Murray is obviously hobbled, and a broken nose and bruised face may swell up on Craig.

We need to get the ball to Beasley more and Barton less when the bench is in, the Trailblazers do not have anybody that can come close to keeping up with Malik off the bench.

Why does it feel like we are watching a totally different team in every game in the playoffs this year? While every game is going to be a little different, every game is so totally different that it is hard to figure out what is going to happen in the next game.

[NuggetsWY]

Six Blazers in double figures - Which Nugget wants to claim he played defense? I'll give Craig some credit, but that's about it. Even Harris seemed to look at the back of Blazers heading towards the basket.

Nuggets forgot where the basket was; perhaps giving Hernangomez and/or Lyles might have made a difference?

Why doesn't Jokic even look at the basket when he has a guy 6" shorter trying to cover him?

Isn't there an old saying in basketball? Something like, if you can't hit a jumpshot, get to the basket? Which Nugget hit more than 50% of their shots? Nobody! Which Nugget made more than 1/3 of their 3pt shots? Craig!

If we're going to play the first half like that again, why not just wave a white flag and start Lyles, Vanderbilt, Hernangomez, Lydon, Thomas? That first half was disgusting - and there is no excuse.