The Portland Trail Blazers' second-round Western Conference playoff series against the Denver Nuggets got off to a rough start on Monday night, as the Nuggets came away with a 121-113 win to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
By contrast, the Blazers never trailed in their previous series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, beating the Thunder in five games.
Portland star Damian Lillard talked about the difference between defending the Thunder and the Nuggets, saying that Denver's ability to shoot the ball is a key difference:
“Obviously, they're different teams,” said Lillard, according to Royce Young of ESPN. “With OKC, I don't think they had the kind of shooters Denver has. They have a lot of guys who have been pretty much knockdown three-point shooters.”
Lillard then went on to cite Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic is another distinction and said that Denver simply has a lot more movement within its offense:
“And they've got a guy in the middle that's a facilitator,” said Lillard, referring to Jokic. “It's much more of a priority to this team to have the ball moving and hopping around, finding the open man and cutting. There's a lot of action going on, so you've got to honor that because they can take advantage of those things and end up seeing the right plays and making the right plays.”
Lillard makes a lot of salient points, as the Nuggets are certainly a more pass-happy team than the Thunder, who tend to be very isolation-oriented between Russell Westbrook and Paul George.
Plus, the Blazers were able to collapse on Westbrook and George's drives because OKC simply does not have good perimeter shooting.
Basically, Denver seems to be the tougher team to defend, so Portland has its hands full.
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