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The semifinal match between Denver Nuggets (2nd) and Trail Trail Blazers (3rd), Portland Trail, is open in style as the Nuggets defeated the Blazers, 121-113, at the first match, Monday night.
The Nuggets took a 58-55 lead near the halftime and the match was relatively tight, but Denver kept the advantage and controlled the tempo for most of the night. Nikola Jokic continued his playoff debut finishing with 37 points, nine rebounds, six assists and three interceptions. He was complimented by Jamal Murray's performance at 23 and 8 assists and Paul Millsap's 17-point blast in the first half.
Damian Lillard had a superhuman performance with 39 points, but that was not enough to counterbalance the Nuggets trio in the opening game of this series.
Here's all you need to know about what happened in this first match.
CBS Sports will be with you throughout the series between Trail Blazers and Nuggets. If you missed something from tonight's live blog, please click here.
Follow below for live updates, news and highlights of Match 2:
Jokic returns big
Nikola Jokic played in the playoffs for the first time in the playoffs when he led the Nuggets to a win in seven games against the San Antonio Spurs. The 24-year-old athlete averaged 23.1 points, 12.1 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game, while scoring a triple double in Game 7 – the only player in the game. NBA history with Magic Johnson and LeBron James to produce several triple-doubles in their first game. playoffs.
The 7-foot center again beat the ball in the first game against the Blazers since it produced 37 points on 11 of its 18 attempts and 12 points on 12 of the free throw line. More importantly, he scored 15 points in the third decisive quarter, giving the Nuggets a 93-84 lead before the final period.
The Nuggets have good players, but they will only go until their big Serbian man takes them away. Until then, all is well during the playoffs of 2019.
Nuggets cast silences skeptics
The Nuggets are often seen as a team made up of one man, people only thinking about Jokic. However, the Denver players – namely Murray and Millsap – proved to be big in this match against Portland.
It's Millsap who set the tone with Jokic early in the first half, scoring 17 points to lead all the scorers over the first 24 minutes of action. Seven out of nine players on the Nuggets list generated positive numbers in the plus / minus scores department, while Mason Plumlee gave a boost to the energy by leading all players with five flights and this dunk doing authority to seal the match.
In addition, the pick-and-roll duo composed of Murray and Jokic created big problems for the Blazers in this first match. This is the main adjustment that Portland will have to do to go from the front so it wants to have a chance to defeat the Nuggets of this series.
The rotation outside of Jokic may not feature familiar names, but that's one of the main reasons why the Nuggets are the second-seeded Western Conference playoffs.
Lillard is superhuman – yet
We all know that Damian Lillard has been the star of the 2019 NBA playoffs so far. On his own, he led the Blazers to a victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round and hit the NBA's coldest playoff drummer when he eliminated OKC with a close shot half of the field of 6-foot-9 Paul George.
There was a lot of hype around Lillard's entry in this series and he was not disappointed – he scored 39 points to lead all the players and he did it on a ridiculous 12 of 21 among the players. However, it was for nothing because Jokic himself achieved an excellent performance to make up for the stellar statistics line of the All-Star guard.
After his performance in Game 1 against the Nuggets, Lillard now has an average of 34.8 points per game in the playoffs, just 0.2 points from Kevin Durant for first place.
No. 2 Denver Nuggets vs. No. 3 Portland Trail Blazers
How to watch Match 2
- Date: Wednesday, May 1st
- Time: 21:00.
- Location: Pepsi Center – Denver, Colorado
- TV channel: TNT
- Live Statistics: GameTracker
- Streaming Online: fuboTV (try it for free)
- chances: N / A
TV Lists
All games will be broadcast on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV during the playoffs. Games on TNT and NBA TV can be streamed via fuboTV (try it for free).
Ratings and Analysis
Check out the Sportsline NBA Selection Sheet for all your daily odds.
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