Well, that was a fun game. For Portland, anyway.

The Portland Trail Blazers smashed the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night 130-113 in a display of ball-movement, three-point shooting and a near-record first half for the Blazers. If you are a Blazer fan, this game was fun to watch. If you are Denver fan, well you might just be waking up with a horrible hangover.

Normally I would go into specifics on each quarter and talk about what Portland did right or wrong and which player had the biggest impact. However, I feel like that would be pointless as Portland really grabbed this game by the horns and sent the Nuggets packing by halftime. It was a great display of a team who has it together going up against a team who has no identity and is really struggling to find anything to be excited about this season.

I’ll jump into the statistics for the whole team. Portland shot 51% from the field and 49% from three for the game. Portland hit 16 threes, while Denver only swished eight. What was interesting was that Denver jumped out to a 9-2 lead at the beginning of this game. To start off, Denver looked to be the team ready to go as they should have been and Portland looked weary. Once the Blazers settled down, they flipped the switch on both ends of the court outscoring the Nuggets 39-28 in the first quarter and 45-22 in the second. The defense woke up as well as the offense. I mentioned this last season, but there were a few games where Portland’s offense just mesmerized some teams. A fan could tell just by the reaction times and the defensive assignments being blown up as well as the shots that were open for Portland.

The most impressive stat was that Portland scored 84 points in the first half. First half! Portland was two points away from tying a franchise record for most points in the first half. To put this in comparison, Portland played better in the first half than the Miami Heat did in their entire game against Indiana last night. The Heat scored 75 points total. On fire does not explain what the Blazers were doing on offense last night.

While the first half was all Portland, the Nuggets did play a lot better in the second half. They outscored Portland 28-27 in the third quarter and 35-19 in the fourth. Again, though, Portland had done immense amounts of damage in the first half such that it really did not matter in the end.

In the games thus far this season, Portland has completely demolished the teams that they have beaten. On the season, they have a +8.2 point differential.

Portland had balanced scoring from their roster in this game. Their highest scorer was Damian Lillard with 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting, 5-for-6 from three with nine assists, two steals and five rebounds. Lillard has been on fire as of late. In his last two games (including this one), he has combined for 56 points on 22-for-37 shooting, 10-for-14 from three.

Robin Lopez provided 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting and had five rebounds. So, when can we start talking about Lopez becoming a legitimate offensive threat? This is the second time in the past week that Lopez has scored 19 points.

Allen Crabbe started in place of the injured Nicolas Batum once again and had a better game overall. He played just 18 minutes, but finished with seven points on 2-for-6 shooting, 1-for-4 from three and had three rebounds, one block and one steal. Head coach Terry Stotts will have to ask the question as to whether Crabbe deserves rotation time after his stint in the starting lineup. While he has not blown me away, he has played solid basketball, doing a little of everything.

C.J. McCollum finished with 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting, 3-for-6 from three. McCollum has been impressive and there has been some improvement. However, he seems to lose his balance some whenever he handles the ball. I do not know if this is nerves or just getting used to an NBA court still, but just something to call out.

Chris Kaman finished with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, seven rebounds, two assists, 1 steal and two blocks. Kaman has been fantastic. He even had a ferocious left-handed slam that made everyone remember that he was an all-star.

Steve Blake continues to be such a boon for this team. He finished with six points on 2-for-8 shooting both makes being three-pointers with five rebounds and five assists.

One name that is missing from this list is LaMarcus Aldridge who did not have a fantastic offensive game by any stretch. He finished with 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting and had seven rebounds and three assists. However, he was such an asset on the defensive end that he finished with a whopping six blocks. This goes to show that Portland is a deeper team. The Nuggets decided to double-team LA right from the beginning, but it did not work. It may have taken LA out of his game offensively; it did nothing for the rest of the shooters.

Overall, this was a stomping and it was embarrassing for Denver. Portland was playing its fourth game in five nights and Denver was playing its second game in six nights both against the same team. No excuse for Denver to come out this flat. Honestly, Denver played better in the Moda Center than they did on their own court. The mindset and body language of this Nuggets squad is not encouraging and Denver has some decisions to make in terms of rotation and players. Aaron Afflalo only played ten minutes in this game, which is leaving fans wondering what is head coach Brian Shaw thinking? Was Afflalo not giving enough effort on the defensive end? Was his attitude not the greatest? Whatever it is, it has to be something serious for Shaw to bench a good shooting guard and a veteran player who could really help this team out.

Regardless, that is Denver’s issue and not Portland’s. Portland will get a couple days rest before facing the Brooklyn Nets in their first meeting of the season at the Moda Center at 7:00 p.m. PST. This will be the first time the Lopez brothers go at it as since Robin was traded to Portland. Brook Lopez is a more offensive-minded player, but Robin has shown that he can be an offensive threat himself. It should be fun to watch.The Nets are a better disciplined team with Lionel Hollins at the helm and Deron Williams looks to be the healthiest he has been in a while. It will be a tough game for sure. Stay tuned!