Portland Trail Blazers big man Jusuf Nurkic sneaked in a huge highlight before the first half ended against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. Nurkic rose up and dunked on Marcus Smart and Robert Williams to tie the game.
This is definitely a good sign for the Blazers, who lost Nurkic at the start of the season.
WE YELLED pic.twitter.com/J8xAxVsRDf
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) April 14, 2021
The Blazers have been up and down throughout this season, as they are in sixth place in the competitive Western Conference. With that said, any signs of improvement from one of their main anchors is a great thing to see.
Prior to the game against the Celtics, Jusuf Nurkic is averaging just 9.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists. The Blazers have to find a way to get their big man going if they want to constantly win games. Their All-Star Damian Lillard has gotten a lot of attention from the opposing defense, so Portland's role players must step up and capitalize from that.
Good news for the Blazers is that they face the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets (who have a couple of injured players), Los Angeles Clippers (still without Kawhi Leonard) and Denver Nuggets (now without Jamal Murray) in the next coming days. These are winnable games for them if they can play enough defense to control the proceedings.
The Blazers’ defense ranks 29th in the league and has been the biggest criticism they’ve gotten this season. It also doesn’t help that Lillard picked up the slack for his injured teammates at the beginning of the season, so fatigue may be a factor here.\
Despite all that, a playoff Blazers team still could be a scary sight for any Western Conference franchise, especially if Lillard, CJ McCollum and Nurkic are on a roll.
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