Trail Blazers Break Nuggets on the Road, Take Home-Court Advantage, 97-90

The Denver Nuggets lost the home-court advantage tonight, after suffering a tough defeat against the Trail Blazers at their Pepsi Center. Portland won this event 97-90, in a game which was marked with an extremely bad shooting performance of the hosts.

The Nuggets team was experiencing one of their worst shooting nights since this crew came together. The first half was horrifying because home players couldn’t hit open shots which weren’t even contested.

Nuggets were 5 of 23 from the field in the second period, in which they missed all 10 three-pointers. Jamal Murray made only two of his 11 attempts, Jokic was limited to 6 points, and the entire team hit just 4 downtown shots in 20 attempts. Eventually, hosts scored 12 points in those 12 minutes.

At the end of the game, Denver was 6 of 29 for three, 34 of 98 for two, and only 16 of 26 from the line.

Coach Mike Malone said that his players didn’t recognize the need to make the switch from one strategy to another. In the moments when Nuggets fell into a shooting slump, they needed to start attacking the basket instead of going deeper and deeper into the hole.

“If you’re not making shots, maybe attack the basket,” said Malone. “Maybe get to the foul line, maybe get to the rim.

Nuggets’ coach said that he understood his players who wanted to break the ice, especially because they had open shots, but the bottom line was that they had to try with the different strategy.

“On a night when you’re not making shots consistently, you got to attack the basket.”

At the end of the first half, they were 15 points behind, 50-35.

Trail Blazers themselves had a lot of flaws in their game, like allowing Denver to have rebounding domination, but these minuses never really hurt them because home team’s game simply allowed them to have that luxury.

“They didn’t even play that good,” said Jokic after the game while trying to explain how his team played bad.

"It was kind of a weird game."

Nikola speaks after the Nuggets fall to the Trail Blazers 97-90 at home. #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/mAYc9xM5II

— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 2, 2019

Portland was up 17 in the third period, and routinely closed the game, although Denver trimmed the deficit down to five in the last minute.

Now, what was really shocking was the way home fans reacted at the halftime. The Nuggets were playing bad, and that is the fact, but booing at them because they missed closing eight shots of the second period is something the spectators at Pepsi Center need to be ashamed of.

Instead of showing some support, this is the way they treat one of the most talented crews in the entire league. Many of the players were pretty disappointed with the reaction of the crowd.

On the other side, the Blazers did why they came here for. A victory now makes their position much better, because the series shifts to Oregon.

Lillard spoke about that after the game, repeating the phrase which he used during the entire contest.

“Our goal is to take it just one game at the time,” Dame commented.” To protect our home floor … and be just as sharp if not better, because you know they will come back better.”

"Our goal is to just take it one game at a time and protect our home floor."

Hear from Dame after the Trail Blazers win 97-90 on the road. #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/NsPJdTp08g

— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 2, 2019

Dame didn’t have such a great night. He ended the game with only 14 points shooting 5 of 17 from the field. CJ McCollum had 20 buckets with 6 boards and assists each, while Enes Kanter contributed with 15.
Rodney Hood played his role off the bench very good again, dropping 15 buckets.

On the other hand, Nikola Jokic led the way for the Nuggets with 16 points, 14 boards, and 7 assists. Jamal Murray added 15, but the young guard had many problems with his thigh. Paul Millsap added 14 and 11 buckets.

Game three is scheduled for this Friday at Moda Center in Portland. Tip-off is set at 8:30 p.m. local time.