Jokic, Porter Jr. and Campazzo weren’t affected by Lillard’s 42-point performance and Nuggets tied the series 1–1
Nikola Jokic scored 38 points (15/20 fg, 2/4 3pt, 6/6 ft, 8 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl), Michael Porter Jr. added 18 points and four rebounds and Paul Millsap contributed 15 points and seven rebounds coming off the bench as the Denver Nuggets tied the series 1–1 with a 128–109 victory at home against the Portland Trail Blazers last night.
“They picked up the aggressiveness and we did it, too,” Jokic said. “We met their aggressiveness, maybe even a little bit higher.”
Facundo Campazzo was the maestro for Denver, initiating most plays, nailed great passes that were converted to assists (6) and found some space to knock down some threes to boost his team’s lead. Millsap displayed his physicality at moments and his capacity to showcase his post-up moves.
Aaron Gordon (13pts 6reb, 2/2 3pt) and Austin Rivers (9 pts, 3/5 fg, 2/3 3pt, 2 ast), who signed with the team in the second part of the season, were really good defensively and offensively knocked out some threes that gave some confidence their squad to carry on.
Damian Lillard hit a ton of big shots, including a three-pointer from the logo but his 42-point performance didn’t cover the lack of support by Blazers’ second group (7/17 FG in total). He made nine three-pointers in total and had 10 assists and four rebounds.
Lillard’s already thinking ahead to Game 3 in Portland on Thursday and what he will do to counteract Gordon’s defensive tenacity.
“Just moving around more off the ball, getting some more off-ball sets,” Lillard said. “Things like that, you can typically get a little bit of space.”
CJ McCollum had 21 points and six rebounds and Norman Powell had 15 points for the Blazers who will play Game 3 and 4 at home.
“They outplayed us top to bottom — other than Dame’s (42),” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “We have to be more aggressive, there’s no question.”