NBA: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets Game 1 Preview, Odds, Prediction

Not long following their matchup in the season final, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets meet again. Only this time, the match takes place in Colorado and the playoffs. These two sides have a fierce history over the past several years, which started a few years ago once they battled for the 8th seed in the West, and then became even more intense in the West semis back in 2018. The Trail Blazers had more success on both occasions, but the situation is a bit different now. The Nuggets evolved into one of the best teams in the NBA. We expect to see a fierce and intense clash in this series.

Preview

Portland Trail Blazers (-105) defeated the Nuggets in the last match, which eventually earned them the sixth spot in the conference, avoiding the play-in troubles. It was either them or the Lakers, but in the end, the team from the RIP City make it leaving the champions behind.

As you all know, the man in the middle here is Damian Lillard, who once again had a superb season. Over the final 10 matches of the year, the Dame shifted into a higher gear, dropping 31.8 points per night, with 8.1 assists, and shooting abnormally, 56.2% FG and 50% for three, while hitting 93.8% of his free-throw attempts.

Trail Blazers were also fired up in the finish of the season, closing the campaign with 12 wins in 14 matches while also having a very nasty schedule that saw them going away from Portland 8 times. Terry Stotts’ boys defeated, among other teams, the Nets, Celtics, Lakers, Jazz, and Nuggets throughout that period.

Denver Nuggets (-115) was 15-4 in the last 19 matches, but the one against the Trail Blazers wasn’t too important for Michael Malone’s crew. Their schedule, by the way, was even worse than Portland’s because Nuggets too had to travel a lot, and had to meet with top teams from both conferences.

As said a million times before, many expected to see their fall due to Jamal Murray’s injury, yet that didn’t happen. Why? Because of Jokic and Michael Porter Jr, and a guy called Facundo Campazzo, who took over the playmaking duties and took care of the same pretty damn good. The Argentinian’s vision and creativity are at a high level, and he perfectly blended in Denver’s style of play.

In the playoffs, the Nuggets will need to have more offensive choices, which is why Will Barton needs to step up, as well as Austin Rivers, who was, truth to tell, solid since arriving to town.

Head to Head Games

The Nuggets won two and lost one game against the Trail Blazers during the regular part of the season. The first game on February 23 took place in Colorado, and Denver won that one, 111-106, the next was in Portland on April 21, and the Nuggets won that one as well, but after a drama, 106-105. In the end, the latest match was the season finale in which the Trail Blazers slashed the rivals, 132-116.

Prediction

The bookmakers believe that these two teams are close with quality, but in our opinion, the Nuggets are way better than the Trail Blazers, with all due respect towards the franchise from Oregon. With Jokic under the rim, and Porter Jr., who has been playing incredibly, our money (not just in this match but in the series as well) is on Denver. MPJ will be the difference maker here because Portland doesn’t have a player able to guard him. Also, Jokic likes playing against Nurk and Kanter, and he pretty much destroys them each time they meet

Pick: Nuggets