Michael Porter Jr. and the Denver Nuggets will not be defending their NBA title, as they were eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7 of their second-round Western Conference playoff series on Sunday night.
It was a disastrous loss for the Nuggets, who held a 20-point lead early in the third quarter, only to see the Timberwolves roar back for the win.
Porter scored just seven points off 3-of-12 shooting in the loss, marking his final paltry performance in what was a series full of them.
Afterward, Porter lamented his less-then-stellar play.
“This was a terrible series,” Porter said, via Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “I felt like I might’ve had one or two good games out of the seven we played.”
Porter averaged just 10.7 points per game on 37.1/32.5/76.9 shooting splits in the series. He logged single-digit performances in the last four games of the set and five of the seven contests in the series overall.
“Part of it was the way they were guarding. Part of it was (that) my shot wasn’t falling,” Porter said. “It’s just tough because I know if I would have played up to par with how I normally play, we would have won this series. And there’s a lot of things that could have been different as a team, but I know if I had played my part, we would have won the series. And I’ve got to live with that.”
Porter added that he said “sorry” to his teammates and that the loss was on him.
Michael Porter Jr. was terrific for the Nuggets all season
Porter's awful performance against Minnesota was certainly puzzling given how great he was for the Nuggets this year.
The 25-year-old registered 16.7 points and seven rebounds over 31.7 minutes per game during the regular season while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor, 39.7 percent from three-point range and 83.6 percent from the free-throw line.
What's more, Porter was also terrific in Denver's first-round playoff win over the Los Angeles Lakers, logging 22.8 points and 8.4 boards per game off 53.3/48.8/76.9 shooting splits.
Sometimes, the basketball simply does not bounce the right way, and that was definitely the case for Porter against the Timberwolves.
It's absolutely not the first time Porter has struggled in a playoff series. In last year's NBA Finals, he recorded just 9.6 points a night while making only 32.8 percent of his shots and 14.3 percent of his long-range attempts. The difference is that the Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in five games in that series, so his performance was able to fly under the radar.
This time around, however, there was no escaping it for Porter.
Porter was not the only reason why Denver lost to Minnesota. Far from it. Jamal Murray did not exactly have a great series, either (although he was very good in Game 7 and has the excuse of playing through an injury). But he obviously feels like he owes his teammates something after such a miserable showing.
We'll see if Porter can bounce back next season. Chances are, he will be just fine. He is a good player, and one bad series doesn't change that.
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