GOOD MORNING PEOPLE!!
Portland 97, Denver 90 (series tied 1-1)
Nikola Jokic relayed late on Wednesday that Trail Blazers “didn’t even play that good” in Portland’s Game 2 victory, and he wasn’t incorrect.
“They can play better than that,” Jokic qualified, kindly.
There was no malice or Westbrook-sized skunk to the Nugget center’s scouting report, he was correct in his estimation that Damian Lillard (5-17 shooting) and C.J. McCollum (8-20) typically contribute better performances, and that Portland in full didn’t have to rise to full flight in order to steal the home court advantage.
All the Blazers did was cool some jets. Jokic missed 10-17 shots, runners in the face of Enes Kanter and Zach Collins, he worked with five fouls for a stretch and wants each and every one of those 10 misses back. Jokic’s lone three-point attempt, a miss with 26 ticks left in the contest, could have cut Portland’s advantage down to two.
It was off. Same as Paul Millsap (6-14 shooting) and his leans, sure as you’re born same as Gary Harris, who missed 8-12 attempts.
The Blazers delivered structure and control of this game in its most oppressive time of season.
Portland made sure Denver had a deficit to chip at, PDX ran up nine after nine minutes.
Mo Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu copped three-pointers to start and of course Enes Kanter grabbed seven boards and collected nine points in the opening quarter. Denver wasn’t terrible but Portland made sure the home team couldn’t ease in: Terry Stotts ensured his team owned crunch time edge at the outset.
Jokic didn’t score in the first period, and the Blazers ran Jamal Murray (1-4 in the first) through so much shit. The Nuggets began to rattle on the open three-point attempts and before long a trend developed: Denver missed 4-20 from long range in the opening half, some punk’s idea of a joke.
The home team’s second half intensity rang out a bit but the Blazers quickly matched the sneer, capably contending with the sort of focus and alacrity that the Nuggets missed so badly.
Malik Beasley rang the bell with a few free throw trips but he clanged 5-8 from the stripe, huh.
Monte Morris missed seven of eight shots, at home no less, and Will Barton’s 11 boards (three offensive) could not cheer up that 1-6 mark from the floor. Torrey Craig’s nose was demolished in the first half, he’d courageously return to hit a three and the softest slice of Enes Kanter’s shoulder.
Murray, clutching a pained right thigh bruise leftover from an encounter with Jacob Poeltl in the first round, missed 12-18 shots and had to sit out the final minute of a contest.
“Weird game.”
That’s Jokic talking again.
“Weird day.”
Nonstop offensive rebounds made this a game for Denver in the fourth, but Jokic needed eight attempts for eight points in the period and Gary Harris didn’t even score.
Denver shot 2-9 from deep in the second half on its own damn floor, it made 61 percent of its free throws, it was a real What the Hell Wednesday out there.
For Denver at least.
Lillard and McCollum combined for 14 in the fourth, Evan Turner gave positive minutes during his turns and Portland’s bench was magnificent.
Zach Collins’ secured makes on five of his six attempts, the 7-footer put himself in a position to be accurately credited for some of Jokic’s closest misses.
Rodney Hood roamed from the weak side and found three blocks, he’d also lock in on 15 points, and Aminu stalked expertly underneath without catching his arms in anything.
Portland played well enough to win what just happened to be a playoff game. In a postseason full of heroics, Game 2 felt a little off.
It didn’t feel incorrect, though. Portland pushed its way into the weird.
Game 3 in Portland on Friday at 7:30 local on ESPN.
THIS DATE IN PLAYOFF HISTORY
(Game 4, Raptors beat Knicks 100-93, tying the best-of five series at 2-2)
The Knicks were supposed to win this series.
New York was better (read: more famous) and highly experienced (old) and the only reason the Knicks kinda had a problem with Toronto in a playoff series a year before was because The Knicks’ Supposed Biggest Issue (Patrick Ewing) was stuck in the lane, getting in the way.
By Game 4 Ew was a Seattle SuperSonic and trade deadline pickup Mark Jackson was around to lend some sensibility to the team’s multi-headed monster at point guard.
New York’s issue was that Chris Childs had to be part of the package that returned Jax to New York. Typically Childs was part of the problem.
Happy Raptor Chris Childs enjoyed seven points in the first quarter of Game 4.
“Guys who have played a lot of playoff games know they have to come out and be the aggressor,” Chris noted after the win.
“We couldn’t sit. We couldn’t wait.”
The Knicks piled up a dozen turnovers by halftime, a monstrous amount inside a 90-possession game. Childs finished his evening with 25 points, with four assists and three steals.
“Quite frankly,” Mark Jackson observed after New York’s loss, “he hurt us.”
Childs, a Knick for nearly five years, didn’t understand why any of this was news.
“You’ve seen me play.”
CARTER AND OAKLEY
Vince Carter entered Game 4 shooting 30.8 percent from the floor in his series.
Following a loss at home in Game 3, Raptor teammate Charles Oakley took offense to Carter’s self-described role as a “catalyst” in Toronto’s offense, preferring Vince to “be a man” and leave the catalysis for smaller, shittier players.
Carter scored a team-high 32 in Game 4 and explained how his Oak worked:
“He’s always in my ear. I love it. It don’t bother me. What, am I supposed to hide from him now? Not at all.”
The 24-year old kept on.
“I love it. That’s his way of telling me we’re behind you. Regardless of what [the media] says, ‘We’re behind you.’ That’s how I see it. That’s his way of telling me, ‘Bring it.’ I know how Oak is. I didn’t even know what he said. He’ll never say, ‘Did you read the papers?’”
Oakley hadn’t the time to read the papers, Charles was too busy beefing with Vince’s mother.
At some point during Game 4 TNT’s cameras found Michelle Carter for a midgame interview, Michelle nailed the opinion that “those” on the Raptors “who did the talking weren’t doing too much on the court.”
Oakley was briefed on the comments after the win, his initial response was to remind reporters that Toronto coach Lenny Wilkens’ “contract is up in two or three years.”
“I don’t take a lot of shots,” Charles explained. “If she’s got something personal with me, I’m not hard to find to find.”
Caught after practice the next day, Oakley further explained his role as Toronto’s catalyst:
“I shoot five or six times, go out and play defense and make sure everything is clicking. I'm like a transmission in a car. You can't see me, but I make the car go.”
A year earlier Oakley watched as his team’s head coach executed a lawsuit against New York center (and first round opponent) Marcus Camby, right in the middle of a playoff series.
Now he was inside a Mom Beef.
“I wasn’t trying to get on Vince,” Oak explained after Game 4.
“I’ve been telling Vince all year, ‘take it to the hole, you can kill these guys. You’re one of the best players in the league.’ I’ve got nothing against his mom.”
The 2000s were shaping up rather remarkably for Charles Oakley.
“Like I've said, the league is not like it used to be.”
ALL ‘N’ ALL
This whole album, and in a car, promise me you will.
Thank you for reading, maybe listening!
(More to come.)
Behind the Boxscore: Denver gets weird