The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets 102-92 on Saturday night. The Blazers improve 41-18 on the season and 23-7 at home. The Nuggets, in the midst of a tough stretch, fall to 25-33 on the season. This win also finished the season series against Denver. The Blazers swept the Nuggets 4-0.
Probably the biggest story of the night was the much anticipated and needed returns of Meyers Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Portland has been holding playing well in the meantime, but you knew that the bench would not be able to sustain that kind of play, especially since teams would have started scouting them better. This leaves just Joel Freeland and Thomas Robinson on the injured list. Joel Freeland is still dealing with that sprained MCL. It seems to be a stability issue more than a pain issue. Portland will have to wait a little bit longer before Freeland returns. Thomas Robinson is still dealing with his own knee injury and did not practice Friday. No update as to when he might return to the lineup.
This game felt like the last Denver game on Wednesday. It featured streaky play along with plenty of missed opportunities for both teams while showcasing a possible weakness in the Blazers’ offense. A good first quarter is becoming the norm for the Blazers. They outscored the Nuggets 32-24 and Denver just could not get over the hump. They would threaten, but would only be able to get the margin to six before the Blazers would rattle off a string of buckets.
Denver is having a rough patch. They have lost ten of their last eleven games and are finding it hard to find scoring without the help of starting point guard Ty Lawson and starting small forward Danilo Gallinari. This was apparent tonight as Denver could not muster enough offense to truly change the game. A couple lay-ups by Denver would result in an easy bucket for Portland and a three. Or, Denver would throw it away or just miss high percentage shots. If you are a Denver fan, you have to be angry. Coming off a fantastic regular season last year with the coach and executive of the year while going a lethal 38-3 at home, I do not think this is what Denver fans had in mind. Denver head Coach Brian Shaw will do well there; he just needs more options to go to. Regardless, Denver is struggling big time. The only silver lining you can take from this is that they are competing and trying to put a good product on the floor.
The Blazers felt discombobulated on offense, but somehow found a way to make it happen on multiple possessions. The stat that comes to mind is going 23-for-24 from the line. To compare, Denver went 23-for-35 from the line. That is twelve missed points right there. Robin Lopez would look out of sync and somehow throw up an ugly hook shot that would find the basket. Lillard had multiple moments where you asked yourself “how did that ball go in?” There were also moments where you sat up and went “why?” One that comes to mind was Batum’s head-scratching cross court pass in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter that seemed to be heading nowhere and landed in the lap of Evan Fournier. At that time, there was 1:22 remaining in the game and Portland was only up by seven. It is, however, nice to see that the Blazers are able to still win a ballgame while not being in sync. Aldridge had just come back and looked a little rusty, which is to be expected. There was even some adjusting to Meyers Leonard, however, Portland used the FT line well and made a positive gain out of several dead possessions.
You have to give credit to Denver’s defense. The double-team pressure on whoever is dribbling is causing some offensive issues for Portland. The tempo is disrupted and turnovers occur. Teams will start to use this strategy more and more. Hopefully, head Coach Terry Stotts will talk about that in upcoming practices. San Antonio implemented this strategy in their last game and it seems to work just enough that the Blazers cannot get any buckets. Portland got lucky tonight in that Denver was not shooting well from anywhere on the court. They also didn’t have that “go to” all-star that could almost guarantee them a bucket. Teams like Houston? That will not fly.
Portland was ice cold from three-point land. They finished going 5-for-27 and shot 19%. Ouch. Credit to the Denver defense once against as their closeouts were phenomenal. Plus, they forced the Blazers to shoot three-pointers deep into the shot clock where they possibly rushed or had to shoot out of position. Portland did go 37-for-81 from the field and shot 46%. However, the stat of the night is those FTs mentioned above. Portland was getting Denver into the penalty early and was able to convert on all but one FT. Unlike the last game in Denver, Portland out-rebounded the Nuggets 52-40 while outscoring them in the paint 54-38.
Because of the out of sync offense at some points, Portland utilized their balanced scoring. Robin Lopez finished with 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting, 8-for-8 from the line and 9 rebounds.
Lillard finished with 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting, 0-for-5 from three, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.
LaMarcus Aldridge, coming back from his injury had a solid return game. He finished with 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 7 rebounds. LA was obviously struggling with rhythm and his shot a little bit, but was still able to provide some much needed punch offensively.
Nicolas Batum had a career high 16 rebounds as he finished scoring just 9 points on 3-for-10 shooting , 1-for-5 from three and 6 assists.
The Blazers will get a day off before taking on the Los Angeles Lakers Monday night in their one and only meeting in the Moda Center this season. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. PST. The Lakers recently acquired the former Golden State towel waver Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks. Bazemore has been play really well and Brooks just had a big game. The Lakers might have the worst record in the west, but do not pencil this one in. Stay tuned!