Norman Powell of the Portland Trail Blazers flexes after his basket against Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has described the team’s Game 4 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers as “soft”, saying that the team played “scared” according to Royce Young, ESPN.
As Malone said:
“Our starters were awful. I thought we had some guys that were tentative, that looked a little scared, who played soft … we’re going to have to be a lot better going home.”
In the 95-115 loss, the Denver Nuggets starters all had a negative plus-minus with Nikola Jokic ‘leading’ the team in that category with a -32 in his 27 minutes played. Jokic handed in his worst individual performance of the series with only 16 points and one assist on 7-18 from the field.
The entire starting lineup was outscored 49-26 while shooting only 30 percent from the floor combined.
One of the most dispiriting parts of the loss was that Michael Porter Jr., the team’s second option after the Jamal Murray injury only took three shots. After Jamal went down, MPJ naturally absorbed those shots and excelled in the games following.
While the playoffs are a different beast altogether, he should never be taking only three shots. Denver needs more than that from him.
This was a game that could’ve nearly put away the Trail Blazers, with a win securing a 3-1 lead which is almost unbeatable, especially for teams that don’t employ LeBron James.
Instead, the pressure flips back on Denver as the team heads home for Game 5 and any basketball fan knows how important Game 5’s are in any playoff series.
Denver Nuggets: The scary part was Damian Lillard only made one shot
The Denver Nuggets might have figured out how to guard Damian Lillard after the second half of Game 2 between these two teams, but it didn’t matter in this matchup.
Dame ended with 10 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds but only made one of his 10 field goals and one of six from behind the arc. Aaron Gordon definitely spent some time on him but with C.J. McCollum and Norman Powell having the games they did, Malone was forced to split AG across the entire Blazer backcourt.
Denver Nuggets: Silver linings in an embarrassing loss
While the title of this article focuses on the soft play and lack of fire from the Denver Nuggets starters, it could very well have been ‘The Norman Powell Game’. Powell top-scored on the night with 29 points on 11-15 shooting and 4-4 from 3-point land.
This game might be the high watermark for Norman who is very capable as a shooter, Kirk Goldsberry recently highlighted how great of a corner shooter he is. In terms of a playoff game, with playoff intensity, this could be as good as it gets from him. If the Nuggets aren’t playing soft and Powell misses a couple of those shots, this game looks much closer.
The focus will be on the Denver starters who mailed in a poor performance but the bench, who played slightly more than in past games this series looked solid. Paul Millsap had a neat performance and the tandem of he and JaMychal Green had some moments, grabbing boards, getting defensive stops, and trying to keep the team afloat.
Another silver lining is the aforementioned Dame shooting splits. It’s never a great idea to say you’ve got an all-time scorer figured out, but Denver is looking more and more comfortable on the Portland guard since the first half of Game 2.
But at the end of the day, Michael Malone summed it up well:
“There are no silver linings when you get your ass kicked in a playoff game. I can’t believe we’re actually talking about playing hard in a playoff game. That should be a given.”
Heading back home for Game 5 tied 2-2, the Nuggets will have all the pressure on them and no momentum. Let’s see what happens.
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May 30, 2021 at 01:19PM
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Denver Nuggets: Some “played soft” in Game 4 loss - Nugg Love
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