Sports writing, May 29 (EFE) .- The Blazers beat the Nuggets this Saturday in the fourth game of the series that faces the two teams by winning 115-95 in a game in which the Portland team reached being 33 points ahead of the scoreboard and in which Norman Powell shone.
Powell was the leading scorer and scored 29 points for Portland in addition to getting 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks. His teammate CJ McCollum had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists while Damian Lillard had a double-double of 10 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds and 1 steal.
Bosnian center Jusuf Nurcik, who made a great mark on Jokic, scored 17 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks.
Up front, the top scorer for the Nuggets was their star, Nikola Jokic, who had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist. His figures were far from what the Serbian center had achieved in the previous three games against the Blazers, when he averaged 36 points. Jokic scored only 1 of 4 3-pointers and 7 of 18 shots from the field.
The Argentine base of the Nuggets, Facundo Campazzo, like the rest of the team, did not have a good game either, despite scoring 12 points, 2 rebounds and 7 assists. From the bench, Monte Morris, with 12 points, and JaMychal Green, with 11, were the best players for the Nuggets. Campazzo scored 2 of 7 triples and 1 of 3 shots from two.
MALONE, DISAPPOINTED
After the game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone did not hold his tongue, saying that “tonight, the starting players have been awful” and continued that “some looked scared. I’m really disappointed.”
Malone added that he hopes what happened today is a warning for his men to realize that they are playing the playoffs and that it is necessary to play with more intensity.
Without Jokic’s points, much of the Nuggets’ scoring responsibility would have fallen on Michael Porter Jr. But the forward only shot three times, all from beyond the 3-point line, and made only one basket in his 23 minutes. on track.
After losing two straight games, which left the series 2-1 in favor of the Nuggets, the Blazers had to stop the bleeding today. And the only way to do that was to knock out Denver’s most powerful weapon, Serbian center Nikola Jokic, the season’s top MVP candidate.
From the start of the game, the Blazers set the tone for the game. Nurkic’s defensive intensity on Jokic caused the Serb to miss his first four shots. At the same time, Powell made it clear that he was prepared to break the Nuggets on offense.
Halfway through the first quarter, when Portland’s men had placed 20-13 on the scoreboard, the Blazers forward was responsible for half of those points, after scoring 2 3-pointers of 2 attempts and 2 baskets of 2, 100% of success.
The first quarter ended 32-24 for Portland.
HEADLINES, AWFUL
In the second quarter, the contribution of Green and Markus Howard from the bench allowed the Denver team to get closer on the scoreboard. With 7.50 minutes remaining, the Nuggets tied the game 36-36 but it was a mirage.
The Nuggets starters returned to the court with a 40-36 on the scoreboard and when the second quarter ended, the Blazers had regained the ground with a 57-47 in the light.
Malone’s men would have liked not to return from the locker room after the break. Powell got back to his game and punished the almost nonexistent Denver defense with inning after inning while Carmelo Anthony scored from the 3-line or middle distance.
With no response, Denver offered virtually no resistance, scoring just 19 points in the third quarter to Portland’s 36.
At the beginning of the fourth period the scoreboard showed a humiliating 93-66. With that score, Malone decided to leave 4 of his 5 starters on the bench during the last 12 minutes: Jokic, Austin Rivers, Aaron Gordon and Porter Jr. Only Campazzo enjoyed almost 5 minutes in the fourth quarter.
(c) EFE Agency