Damian Lillard stalked the court like he had an axe to grind.
Or maybe it was a stake, like the one he drove home Saturday night late in the fourth quarter of Game 1 against the Nuggets. Lillard’s fifth 3-pointer gave the Blazers a comfortable double-digit cushion, and Portland cruised from there, winning 123-109 to take a 1-0 series lead in this first-round series.
If the Nuggets are going to even it in Monday’s Game 2, their 3-point defense will have to be far more connected than it was Saturday. Portland rained in 19-of-40 3-pointers, including 12 combined from Lillard, C.J. McCollum and public enemy No. 1 Carmelo Anthony.
“Too many breakdowns,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “To win a playoff game, especially when you’re undermanned, you have to be on-point with everything. … Guys played hard, but we have to play a lot smarter.”
Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. were fantastic. Denver just didn’t have the horses to keep up with the furious 3-point pace the Blazers set. Jokic finished with 34 points on 14-of-27 from the field. He was every bit the matchup nightmare the Nuggets need to compete in this series. Porter added 25 points, but was just 1-of-10 from 3-point range.
Portland’s bench had a 34-20 edge, only highlighting Denver’s need to get more scoring elsewhere.
The Nuggets got invaluable buckets from complementary players Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers and Aaron Gordon yet they couldn’t keep a lid on Lillard and McCollum in the third quarter. Portland’s backcourt duo connected on four 3-pointers, including one from Lillard with only 1.8 seconds left in the quarter. Despite a torrent of 3s, layups and jumpers from Jokic, Lillard’s signature shot gave the Blazers a 96-86 lead heading into the fourth.
Sporting a bright yellow trucker hat, Jamal Murray was as active as any player on Denver’s bench. In the first half, he more or less doubled as an assistant coach, standing and barking orders alongside Malone and his assistants. He tamed down, somewhat, in the second half after wandering all the way to halfcourt just to yell something in the direction of Portland’s bench. Barely a month removed from ACL surgery, Murray looked determined to register something in the box score.
Malone had the same question everyone else did heading into Saturday night’s tipoff. After their longest extended break since the All-Star Game in March, he didn’t know what to expect.
“I’m curious to see,” Malone said. “I think it’s both ways. Obviously, Portland was playing at a really high level to close out the season, to avoid the play-in, and when you’re playing at a high level, you want to keep that flow, that momentum going.
“The one thing I will say, and I think it’s probably true for every playoff series today and tomorrow, it’s been a long week,” Malone added. “We’ve thrown a lot at our guys, mentally, physically, so I think there’s just a lot of excitement to get out there and finally play Game 1, go out there and compete.”
Jokic had a first-half field day, shredding whichever Blazers big man was unlucky enough to draw the assignment. Jusuf Nurkic tried, then it was Enes Kanter and then late in the second half, it was Portland forward Robert Covington. With his deep bag of post moves, Jokic kept all three on skates.
He went to work on consecutive possessions against Kanter, much to the delight of Will Barton, JaVale McGee and P.J. Dozier, who were egging him on from Denver’s bench. Each Jokic mismatch drew a contagious buzz from the Ball Arena crowd. Jokic had a game-high 22 points at halftime to pace Denver’s marginal 61-58 lead after two quarters.
Porter added 13 and the Nuggets enjoyed surprisingly productive minutes from two-way guard Markus Howard, whose play late in the season gave Malone confidence he could be a postseason weapon.
After checking in to a hearty round of boos, Anthony drained four first-half 3-pointers to the chagrin of the raucous crowd.
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