The Denver Nuggets face the Portland Trail-Blazers in what is anticipated to be a very evenly matched series!
Playoff run so far for both teams
Nuggets: The Nuggets are coming off a very impressive 1st round win as they took down the San Antonio Spurs in 7 games overcoming a series deficit twice and truly showing grow up signs as their young players have performed really well whenever counted upon whether it’s Jokic, Murray, Harris etc. Nuggets have been one of the best offensive teams in the first round, in fact 3rd best when it comes to OFF RTG in the post season.
Trail-Blazers: Despite being the 3rd seed, Portland were tipped as underdogs in the 1st round and overcame that by bouncing Oklahoma City Thunder out in 5 games in what was a very good performance by the Blazers as they have overcome their Playoff struggles snapping multiple different bad streaks and reaching the 2nd round. Portland got into the Playoffs in what was arguably one of the most legendary ways ever as Damian Lillard knocked down a near half court buzzer beater to knock out the Thunder in Game 5.
Key Players in the series
Jokic/Murray (Nuggets): The young duo are definitely the most important Denver’s players coming into this series. Nikola Jokic has played at an MVP level throughout the whole season and have carried that into the Playoffs putting up some ridiculous numbers 23.1 ppg 12.1 rpg and 9.1 apg. Jokic has also set the Nuggets playoff record with 43 pts in one of the games. The Nuggets offense runs mainly through Jokic, he does everything for this team and is by far their most important player. Coming up against Kanter who is suspect defensively, he is expected to have another big series for sure here.
As for Jamal Murray, his importance can be simply measured by his performances in the 1st round. In the 4 wins he average 23.5 ppg on 48% shooting and in the 3 losses he put up 13 ppg on 36.1%. Murray will absolutely have to be consistent for Denver coming into this series and that’s been a slight issue with him all season. One night he can explode the next night he’s non existent. Murray has done well in the biggest games like Game 2 when Denver were 0-1 down when he scored 21 pts in the 4th, Game 4 when he scored 24 on 8/14 shooting or Game 7 when he scored 23 pts scoring a lot of crucial points late to clinch the series. Murray has been very clutch in the Playoffs so far and when he plays well, the Nuggets win so Jamal clearly is one of the biggest keys for Denver.
Lillard/McCollum (Trail-Blazers): There is absolutely no question who the key guys are for Portland. The two star guards Lillard and McCollum have been absolutely sensational this whole season again and it finally translated into the post season. Lillard has been one of the best playoff performers in general so far averaging 33/5/6 with 46/48/85 shooting splits and is coming off a 50 pt game and a game winner in the clinching game against OKC so Dame is clearly playing his best basketball probably ever right now, definitely his best in the post season.
McCollum has also been great for Portland. Another elite scorer, putting up 24/5/4 in the Playoffs so far also had some great performances in the first round. There really isn’t much else to add when it comes to CJ, one of the two explosive scoring guards that Blazers have and they’ll need him to be great as much as Lillard. If he gets going, he could have a very good series here and Portland will likely need about 25+ ppg from him in this series too.
Key factors in the series
Bench Play: This is a massive factor coming into this series. Denver have had by far the better bench than Portland and it has been a massive factor for the Nuggets in the playoffs so far. Denver’s bench average 28.9 ppg, they have guys like Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, Mason Plumlee and even Will Barton who have all contributed in many ways whether it’s bringing energy, playmaking, scoring, defense, rebound. Denver has one of the best benches in the NBA and due to their depth they have been able to have the season they’ve had as their level of play doesn’t tend to fall off when the star players sit.
Portland’s bench is a big concern. Lowest scoring bench so far in the Playoffs with just 18.8 ppg, only bench to score under 20 ppg and they rely on their starters way too much. Blazers have guys who can play like Seth Curry, Turner, Hood, Zach Collins but it’s very inconsistent play. Curry may go off for multiple threes one night then be quiet the other, Turner could give you a triple double one night then do nothing the next night, same with Rodney Hood and because Enes Kanter isn’t a bench player anymore since Nurkic is out, their bench has been hurting. Portland’s back up players will need to find the consistency in this series considering how good Denver’s depth is and help the starters carry some of the load because it’s going to be very hard for the Blazers starters to continue to score at such a high rate as they did in Round 1.
Home Court Advantage: This is going to be absolutely huge. Both teams are two of the best playing at home this season with Denver are 35-8 at home in the regular season and Playoffs combined, Portland are 35-9. Currently the home court advantage belongs to the Nuggets, but they can’t afford to let it slip out of their hands because Portland have been unbeatable at home themselves. Now they lost home court against the Spurs in G1, but went to San Antonio and won and then essentially in games 5 and 7 home court got Denver through. As for Portland, they absolutely CANNOT allow Denver to win one in Portland as in that case they’d have to win 2 in Denver and the Nuggets have not lost multiple home games to any teams this season. This is one of those series where the home team could very well take every game given how great the Nuggets and Blazers are in front of their fans.
Regular Season H2H
Denver won the Regular Season series 3-1 against the Blazers this season (2-0 at home) being one of the few team that actually won in Portland. All 4 match ups were closely contested as they all went down to the wire and were all decided by single digits as Denver won their games by 3, 1 and 9 pts while Portland won theirs by 7 with the average margin of win in these 4 games being 5 pts. These teams are pretty evenly matched and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there have been so many close games which is expected to occur in this Playoff series too.
Series Prediction
This is going to be a very entertaining series. Two teams full of talent, they are very closely matched but a couple of factors make us pick the Denver Nuggets. Denver are deeper and they hold home court advantage in this series which will prove to be very crucial as they have been the best home team in the league. Nuggets have proven that they can deal with Playoff adversity and they have shown that they have been just slightly better than the Blazers this season having a better record and winning H2H match ups. We anticipate this series to go to 7 and that’s where home court will come to play and Denver will take the series 4-3.
Series Odds (Unibet)
Nuggets to Advance – 1.72
Trail-Blazers to Advance – 2.15
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