Lillard scored 20 of his total 34 points in the second half and the Blazers lead 1–0 the series against Nuggets
Damian Lillard had 34 points and 13 assists, CJ McCollum aded 21 points and six rebounds and Carmelo Anthony was very efficient in regards of shooting, knocking down four threes and giving a boost to Blazers in the first half and Portland had a tough Game 1 and escaped with a 123–109 win over the Denver Nuggets.
“It was huge,” Lillard said of Nikola Jokic’s impact on his team. “We know when they’re at their best, he’s setting the table, he’s dominating the game as a playmaker and he’s scoring and he’s kind of having his way.
“A guy as good as he is, an MVP candidate — the MVP in my opinion — you know that he’s going to play well,” Lillard added. “You know he’s going to do what he does but you got to try to take something away.”
“We want him to score and not get his teammates involved,” Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic said. “When he scores, I think we have a better chance. The fact he isn’t involving all his teammates, he gets more dangerous when he’s in and out. I think we feel more comfortable when he scores 30 or 40 and try to lock in on all the other guys to not have a big game.” Jokic did exactly that, dropping 34 points on 14-of-27 shooting; but along with it, he was missing a key element to his game that has made him such a dominant offensive player. Jokic finished with just one assist, a playoff career low.
Jokic was incredible on both sides of the floor finishing with 34 points and 16 rebounds but felt like he could have got his teammates more involved.
“I couldn’t get the other guys involved,” Jokic said. “They made me work for it on every possession.”
Michael Porter Jr. chipped in 25 points and Aaron Gordon added 16 points for Denver.
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone had talked to his team about defending the perimeter well, but they didn’t do a good job on this one last night, as Blazers made 19 threes: “I talked about it quite a lot during the week, can we guard the 3-point line?” he said. “Too many breakdowns.”
Game 2 in the series is Monday night.