The Portland Trail Blazers were the first of three Western Conference road teams to pick up wins in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs, as they went into Denver and pulled away late to a 123-109 victory.
The focus for the Blazers was pretty obvious: Let Nikola Jokic score all he wants, but don’t allow him to orchestrate the Denver offense to where everyone else gets in a rhythm. That’s when Denver is at their best and most dangerous, and the result was a monster 34-point, 16-rebound game from Jokic, but he had just one assist. Michael Porter Jr. did his best, pitching in 25 points and nine boards, but no one else really got involved to the point of making a major difference and the result was an inability to stay in touch with Portland’s offensive onslaught.
Damian Lillard had 34 points of his own to match Jokic, with CJ McCollum adding 21, Carmelo Anthony catching fire early to get to 18, and overall six Blazers finished the night in double figures. It’ll be interesting to see how Denver adjusts on both ends, as they struggled to contain the Portland backcourt and need to figure out how to better work as a team offensively, because as we saw in the opener, as great as Jokic and MPJ are, they can’t be effectively going it alone.
From a betting perspective, Game 1 went Over the total and Portland covered with the big win.
Game 2 TV Info
Tip Time: Monday, May 24; 10:00 p.m. ET
TV Network: TNT
Game 2 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)
Series Prices: Blazers (-295), Nuggets (+230)
Spread: Nuggets -1.5 (-113), Blazers +1.5 (-108)
Total: Over 227 (-112), Under 227 (-109)
Money Line: Nuggets (-122), Blazers (+102)