The Portland Trail Blazers are wrapping up their long road trip with a trip to face off with the Denver Nuggets. Portland is coming into this game with three straight wins on this road stretch against the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, and Minnesota Timberwolves to find themselves tied for the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoff race.
Denver won their last contest at home against the Toronto Raptors, but currently sit fifth in the Western Conference, just outside of a home court advantage
spot in the playoffs.
What You Need To Know
Portland Trail Blazers (35-36) at Denver Nuggets (43-28) Sunday, Mar. 22 – 2pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to stream: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
How to listen: Trail Blazers Audio Network
Trail Blazers Injuries: Jerami Grant, Vit Krejci (Questionable); Damian Lillard, Shaedon Sharpe (Out)
Nuggets injuries: Peyton Watson (Questionable)
What To Watch For
Efficiency vs Second Chances: The Nuggets are the best offense in the league. They lead the league in points per game (120.7 points), offensive rating (122.3), and three-point percentage (39.2%) and are second in overall field goal percentage (49.3%). The Blazers sit completely opposite of that coin, boasting 29th in the league marks from the field and from deep at 45.1% and 33.8% respectively. However, where Portland makes up for those terrible percentages is with their 14.2 offensive rebounds per game, good for second in the NBA. If the Blazers are able to make up that gap with second chance points, it could keep them in the game through a good Nuggets shooting performance. However, if that advantage is mitigated, it could take Portland out of the game before it begins.
The Nikola Jokic Effect: Jokic is obviously an incredible player, and he has proven time and time again to be capable of winning a game almost on his own. The main focus has to be trying to limit his impact as much as possible. That may be a fool’s errand, but if the Blazers can slow down even one aspect of his offensive game, it could give them the window they need to sneak away with a win.
What Others Are Saying
The Athletic’s Eric Koreen talks about the Nuggets’s struggles since Jokic returned from injury.
Their record since Jokić’s return is a bit deceiving since they have an adequate net rating of plus-3.8 points per 100 possessions over those games, not counting the Raptors game. They have lost five one-possession games in that span, plus another one in overtime. That in itself is weird, given Jokić’s presence usually guarantees superb clutch play.
Jokić has turned the ball over 4.5 times per game since his return. He averaged 3.5 in his first 32. Adelman said teams have been putting wings on Jokić more often than big men, with Jokić unable to bring the ball up the floor as often and forcing the Nuggets to try to get him the ball in tight spaces. To that point, the Raptors put All-Star forward Scottie Barnes on Jokić to start the game. There was some evidence of the Nuggets forcing the ball to Jokić, although he had just two turnovers.
