The Denver Nuggets are still riding the high of an overtime win over the San Antonio Spurs, but they will need to come back to earth and handle the Portland Trail Blazers if they want to avoid undoing all the hard work of the Spurs game. Both teams are rested, with Portland not having played since April 2nd when they defeated the New Orleans Pelicans. Denver is riding an 8-game win streak, but the Blazers have a 3-win streak of their own and after defeating the Clippers on March 31st they control their own destiny for the 8th spot in the playoff standings. It’s a tough final stretch for them though with the Nuggets and the Spurs followed by a last game against the Clips before the Kings round out their regular season schedule. The Blazers would like a win in the Mile High but the Nuggets have handled this matchup in recent years and have gone 2-1 so far against the Blazers this year. The one loss was on Halloween where Denver let Portland hang around and couldn’t close them out.
Deni Avdija has been terrific for Portland this year with almost 24 points per game, and Donovan Clingan has been a large force on the glass as he is third in the league in rebounds per game behind league-leader Nikola Jokic and Karl-Anthony Towns. But Denver’s firepower should eclipse what Portland can bring, even though Denver has several forwards on the shelf. It’s whether Denver can take this game seriously from the jump that’s the question. If they do, the Nuggets should be able to lock up their ninth win in a row and perhaps not exhaust their stars doing so. If they start slow, Portland will have the opportunity to make it a dogfight. This isn’t a playoff tune-up for Denver though it certainly is an opportunity to test some rotations, but it may be for the Blazers – so if Portland wants to test themselves, it’s Denver’s job to make them fail.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (50-28) vs Portland Trail Blazers (40-38)
When: 7:00 PM MST
Where: Ball Arena, Denver
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV / League Pass
Rival Blog: Blazer’s Edge
Injury Report | Nuggets: Bruce Brown—Probable (ankle); Spencer Jones—out hamstring); Zeke Nnaji—out (hip); Peyton Watson—out (hamstring)
Portland Trail Blazers: Jerami Grant—out (calf); Vit Krejci—out (calf); Damian Lillard—out (Achilles); Shaedon Sharpe—out (shin splints)
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Aaron Gordon minutes. Yes, Denver is still down 3 forwards (plus Bruce Brown injured his ankle against the Spurs although he is likely to play). Gordon is not listed on the injury report despite visibly limping throughout the end of the Spurs game (where he was tremendous even with one working leg) and he played 41 minutes. Denver said he was on a minutes restriction but obviously the win was more important to them than safeguarding the key to their entire defensive plan for the playoffs. They got that win in spectacular fashion in one of the best games of the year – and now they need to figure out how to treat AG in a game where they shouldn’t need that kind of output from him again.
Do they put him back on a minutes restriction? Is he a late add to the injury report and then a scratch? Is he a full-go with no restrictions despite being a parrot short of becoming a pirate with a peg-leg at the end of the San Antonio game? The Nuggets have been atrocious at handling injuries this year, and there is no time left for Gordon to rehab if something goes wrong. How they use him – and how much they ask him to do – is key down the stretch as they try to keep his full-intensity minutes to a minimum before the playoffs start.
The thing to remember: The Nuggets don’t like to play consecutive focused games. This problem starts at the top, led by the best player in the world. Against the Spurs? 40 points, 8 rebounds and 13 assists along with zero turnovers. He was sharp and determined from the jump. The previous game against the Utah Jazz? 15 points, 17 rebounds, and 12 assists with 5 turnovers. Denver had 14 total turnovers against the Jazz, and let them outscore the Nuggets in the paint, in transition and off those turnovers. Denver lost the third quarter by 7 and had to turn it on in the fourth to get some distance against an extremely injured team that was primed to lose.
This is not by accident – the Nuggets are trying to manage their emotions and output by not going all-out in the “easier” games and saving that for the harder ones so they have something left for the playoffs. Denver remembers very well how they ran out of gas in the playoffs after their championship run the year prior. But the Blazers are on a 3-game winning streak of their own, and they have something to play for. They are in the 8th spot in the playoffs currently and staying there gives them two chances to advance out of the play-in should they lose the first game. The Los Angeles Clippers are just half a game back. Maybe Portland’s front office would prefer a lottery pick and a chance to move up in a terrific draft, but the players aren’t playing like they care (nor should they). So Denver needs to arrive at the arena with the right mentality or this could be a very aggravating night on the heels of a terrific win.
The thing to bet: Not DaRon Holmes minutes, I’ll tell you that right now.
