Details: ROUND 1 | GAME 1 | Denver Nuggets versus Utah Jazz

This will be the fifth time the teams have met in the postseason, and the Jazz have won three of those series, most recently a 4–2 win in the first round of the 2010 playoffs.

This time Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert will have to step up their game offensively to help overcome the loss of Bojan Bogdanovic, who had season-ending wrist surgery in May. The Jazz also announced on Sunday that they will begin the series without veteran guard Mike Conley, who left the bubble to be with his wife for the birth of their son.

Conley averaged 14.4 points, 4.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds in 47 games (41 starts) in his first season with Utah in 2019–20.

When head coach Mike Malone was asked what the news of Conley’s departure would mean for Denver, he stated that his initial thought was to say congratulations for the Conleys. His next thought was not to equate this absence as any sort of advantage for the Nuggets. “If Mike Conley is not available, then I’m sure other guys will step up,” Malone said. “We were able to go into Utah this year and win with seven guys. If Mike Conley is not available that means more Donovan Mitchell, who is an All-NBA caliber player.”

Coach Quin Snyder recently stated that he has been searching for alternative ways to create offensive plays, and one of the points of emphasis has been to get more scoring behind the 3-point line.

“As a staff, we’ve had the opportunity to coach guys that will let you coach them, and really, we learn from each other,” Snyder said after Saturday’s practice. “So when we say we’re evolving and molding to fit — be it our personnel or things we’ve learned about how we play, what we want to do better, what we want to do more of — we’ve had a group that’s really receptive. And you’re lucky as a coach to have that. They embrace what we give them, and sometimes they modify what we give them — which is great — and make it better.”

It’s a notable strategy to put into practice because the Denver Nuggets have been struggling with their perimeter defense since the resumption of the season and that is because of the multiple injuries that have taken place. In fact, their best perimeter defender is Gary Harris, who has yet to be available to play a game and that due to a right hip injury. It’s questionable if he will play on Game 1, as it is for Will Barton (right knee soreness) who didn’t participate in any of the eight games that were conducted in the bubble. Vlatko Cancar is also out for tonight’s game.

Due to these absences, rookie Michael Porter Jr. had been granted with more minutes and he did a terrific job. He averaged 19.3 points in the eight games played in the bubble and was included in the All-Bubble second team.

Nuggets will have their two top players available with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to be once again the leaders that will aid the team to go past the first round. Jokic, who averaged 29.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in all three games against the Jazz this season, has some playoff experience and recognizes what has to be done to win games.

“It’s every possession matters,” Jokic said. “You cannot have three, four times-in-a-row possessions that you kind of dribble the ball or just (have) empty possessions. Or you cannot have a lot of turnovers in a row because basketball is a game of runs, so you need to use the opportunity that you have and not kind of (start) forcing things.”

Nuggets head coach Mike Malone was asked what he learned about his team from last year’s playoffs that will help this year: “You cannot put a dollar sign on the experience our young players got.” “Our young players grew up.”

Obviously, the team has obtained more playoff experience and now comprehend how they should approach these games. Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol will go through this for the first time but I am really confident that both will amplify the team’s efficiency in both sides of the floor. Porter played more minutes in the bubble than what he averaged during the first part of the regular season and really displayed his abilities. He put big numbers in most of these eight games, however, in the game against Utah, he had 23 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 38.9% from the field and only 12.5% from the perimeter. With Jazz missing pieces such as Mike Conley, Ed Davis (who will miss the first-round playoff series against Denver with a left knee MCL injury, sources tell ESPN. He’s expected to be re-evaluated in a few weeks) and Justin Wright-Foreman, they will be more vulnerable defensively and it will be interesting to see how they will adjust.

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