Blazers face nuggets in NBA playoff round Second round

Four days after the Blazers won their first-round series in a classic NBA moment, the world now knows their second-round opponent: the Denver Nuggets. They won the seventh game of their first-round series on Saturday night, earning an appointment with the Blazers. Here is the calendar.

The Blazers and Nuggets have a long history, going back to Portland's victory in the six games in the second round of the playoffs of 1977. In 1986, Denver used the players acquired in Kiki Vandeweghe's trade to defeat the Blazers with whom they exchanged. More recently, they completed two trades that helped train their teams. In 2015, Portland, then in competition, bought Arron Afflalo in Denver, exchanging Will Barton and the choice of first round 2016, become Malik Beasley. In 2017, the Nuggets gave up a first-round pick to send an unfortunate Jusuf Nurkic to Portland, acquiring Mason Plumlee. Portland combined this draft with the fifteenth choice to exchange and acquire Zach Collins.

Portland lost three of its four regular season clashes with Denver, but every game was undecided until the final minutes. They fell 113-112 on November 30, 116-113 on January 13, and 119-110 on April 5. They beat the Nuggets 115-108 on April 7, but Denver let their main players rest.