Playoffs Game 1 RD 1 Portland vs Denver 7:30pm Sat SNW/ESPN

[HoopsFanAZ]

I'm sorry but the entire fire Stotts bandwagon is ridiculous. Particularly with how the team finished the year. The West is stacked. Making the second round is good enough for me if they show defensive improvement like over the last 15 games going forward

His subbing on the backups lets runs by the other team go way too long. Leads get obliterated. Fire Stotts and other less civilized words follow way too often from me.

[monopoman]

Nice to take away HCA. A big deal when playing at that altitude. PDX won the first playoff game last year and then lost four in a row, though. They probably need another road win this series, hopefully game 2.

I mean that Lakers team was a far better team, only one team won more than a single game against them that year and it was the Heat in the NBA Finals.

Lakers beat:
Nuggets in 5
Rockets in 5
Blazers in 5
Heat in 6 for the Finals

I am far less scared of the Nuggets especially with at least 1 or 2 key players injured. I am not saying this will be an easy series at all, my point is we stand a much better chance against the Nuggets than we did last years Lakers especially since this is one of the most talented teams Lillard has had since LMA left.

I'm sorry but the entire fire Stotts bandwagon is ridiculous. Particularly with how the team finished the year. The West is stacked. Making the second round is good enough for me if they show defensive improvement like over the last 15 games going forward

Time will tell. We've seen in multiple playoff series where the Blazers look good, the other team makes adjustments, and Stotts just keeps trying the same failing thing over and over with the same dumbfounded look on his face. We have also seen that NOT happen. So far he's out-coached Michael Malone. Hopefully he keeps that up. Certainly rooting for the guy!

I mean Stotts has bested this coach before, and that was a year where I felt we had more injury concerns than they did. Nuggets feasted on Kanter being our best option in the middle, and really attacked the rim and we still won the series. While I really like what Kanter brings to this team, Nurkic is far better and the defense is dramatically improved with him in the middle.

[d-train]

Anyway, was I the only one who thinks Campazzo did a very spectacular job trying to contain Dame tonight? Makes me think that Nuggets backcourt may not be as useless as it appears to be at the first glare.

He was solid enough that they didn't need to handicap themselves with Rivers. Malone should be going with his 3 sub-6' guards. They're his best guards and Blazers are weak against quickness into the lane. Those little guards could cause us problems. Also, Joker going scorer is a great idea against Kanter, but it plays into our hands against Nurkic. Even if Joker scores 40 points against Nurkic, we benefit by Nuggets directing all their offense through the strength of our defense.

[JasonStern]

I'm sorry but the entire fire Stotts bandwagon is ridiculous. Particularly with how the team finished the year. The West is stacked. Making the second round is good enough for me if they show defensive improvement like over the last 15 games going forward

Time will tell. We've seen in multiple playoff series where the Blazers look good, the other team makes adjustments, and Stotts just keeps trying the same failing thing over and over with the same dumbfounded look on his face. We have also seen that NOT happen. So far he's out-coached Michael Malone. Hopefully he keeps that up. Certainly rooting for the guy!

I mean Stotts has bested this coach before, and that was a year where I felt we had more injury concerns than they did. Nuggets feasted on Kanter being our best option in the middle, and really attacked the rim and we still won the series. While I really like what Kanter brings to this team, Nurkic is far better and the defense is dramatically improved with him in the middle.

And I have never deviated from "Stotts is the 10-15th best coach in the league. I an fine if the Blazers fire him, but they better have someone in that 1-10 range lined up." mindset. The Blazers are slight favorites despite no home court advantage due to Denver's injuries. This series is a good barometer for Stotts' ability as a coach.

[d-train]

Time will tell. We've seen in multiple playoff series where the Blazers look good, the other team makes adjustments, and Stotts just keeps trying the same failing thing over and over with the same dumbfounded look on his face. We have also seen that NOT happen. So far he's out-coached Michael Malone. Hopefully he keeps that up. Certainly rooting for the guy!

I mean Stotts has bested this coach before, and that was a year where I felt we had more injury concerns than they did. Nuggets feasted on Kanter being our best option in the middle, and really attacked the rim and we still won the series. While I really like what Kanter brings to this team, Nurkic is far better and the defense is dramatically improved with him in the middle.

And I have never deviated from "Stotts is the 10-15th best coach in the league. I an fine if the Blazers fire him, but they better have someone in that 1-10 range lined up." mindset. The Blazers are slight favorites despite no home court advantage due to Denver's injuries. This series is a good barometer for Stotts' ability as a coach.

I don't know about now, but who didn't favor Nuggets going in to this series. I looked at several betting lines, they all had Nuggets as the favorite.

[JasonStern]

I don't know about now, but who didn't favor Nuggets going in to this series. I looked at several betting lines, they all had Nuggets as the favorite.

William Hill had Blazer -125. Slight favorites but favorites.

I believe it was a push (both teams -110) when betting opened, but I cannot personally confirm that.

[Pattycakes]

I'm sorry but the entire fire Stotts bandwagon is ridiculous. Particularly with how the team finished the year. The West is stacked. Making the second round is good enough for me if they show defensive improvement like over the last 15 games going forward

It made total sense til they started playing decent defense and up to their overall potential.

You gotta be honest as a franchise, and for a while there, this team was looking real underpar not too long ago.

But results speak... I don't think you'll find many currently that are as concerned.

[d-train]

Suns are in position to beat full strength Lakers.

[d-train]

Suns beat the Lakers

[PDXKnight]

I just came to say "fire Stotts"

I wonder if a series win saves him his job or even a 6 game series as we are underdogs? Rumor had it before that it’d almost take the wcf or some type of great playoff run to save his job

thats how it should be

2nd round is not good enough, wcf or a new head coach, simple as that

that being said, lets see how the 1st round ends up

idk wcf seems like too high of expectations imo. Facing a 2 seed phoenix and giving a tough out should save his job in my eyes and falling short of that mark should put olshey on the hot seat more than stotts imo as the roster really isn’t constructed to win in the west as it currently is built

[d-train]

Grizzlies are looking good against Jazz. How many upset wins so far in these playoffs?

[d-train]

I count 4, if Suns win was an upset. I'm counting Blazers, Mavs, Hawks, and Suns. It's 5 if Grizzlies can pull a win.

[d-train]

Gobert just fouled out

[d-train]

Grizzly win is looking good

[d-train]

Grizzlies win

[DaVoiceMaster]

I'm ready for a coaching change, but not right now. It's playoff time. Let's focus on that and worry about the coaching situation later.

[Dzon Dilindzer]

Gotta love Nurk's performance today. Hardly needed double teams. Made Jokic work on both sides of the ball to tire him out. Made great passes, finished strong, hard screens, head always in the game. Great performance from him.

jokic shoot 6/16 (37.5%) when defended by nurk, 8/11 (72.7%) when defended by non-nurk, that says something

also, nurk can really hurt the nuggets with his scoring, they cant handle him, but were not using him that much

[BNM]

Gotta love Nurk's performance today. Hardly needed double teams. Made Jokic work on both sides of the ball to tire him out. Made great passes, finished strong, hard screens, head always in the game. Great performance from him.

jokic shoot 6/16 (37.5%) when defended by nurk, 8/11 (72.7%) when defended by non-nurk, that says something

also, nurk can really hurt the nuggets with his scoring, they cant handle him, but were not using him that much

Actually, I LOVED the way we used Nurk on offense. It was reminiscent of the way Stotts used him during the Nurk Fever days back in 2016. Nurk is WAY more effective and efficient in the high post than trying to force feed him in the low post. In addition to his 5 assists, for 12 points, he also had 7 screen assists for an additional 16 points.

When you force feed Nurk on the low block, you take away his ability to hit cutters and he's also not setting those monster screens for POR's guards. Plus, when you run plays for him in the low post, he tends to force things and rush his shot. I greatly prefer him playing away from the basket, setting screens in the high pick and roll and hitting cutters diving to the basket. DEN doesn't have a rim protector and with Nurk in the high post, our guards/forwards don't even have to deal with Jokic putting his big body between them and the rim. Our guards were getting so many open looks, there were less opportunities for Nurk to roll to the basket. But when he did, or when he took Jokic off the dribble, it caught the DEN defense off guard and resulted in very high percentage shots for Nurk.

For the game, Nurk's ORtg was an insane 167. You're not going to do any better than that (and that doesn't even include those 7 screen assists for 16 points). Unless/until DEN makes a major adjustment in the way they defend the high pick and roll, just keep using Nurk exactly the same way they did in Game 1.