Nikola Jokic Makes Blazers Regret Getting Out of Bed

The Portland Trail Blazers met the Denver Nuggets in Ball Arena on Monday night hoping to restore their winning ways after a tough loss in Minnesota on Saturday. Instead the Nuggets, pickled, canned, and left the Blazers in a storage closet to gather dust on their way to a 146-117 victory. That marks a new season-high for Denver.

Portland shot 45.5% from the field and 40.5% from the three-point arc in the loss. Normally that would indicate a close game, if not a win. Not when you allow the opponent 65.9% shooting in return. No, that’s not a typo. It was well above 70% before the benches cleared in garbage time.

Nikola Jokic scored 40 points with 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals to lead Denver. Dalano Banton led the Blazers with 22 points. Donovan Clingan added 21 on 8-8 shooting.

Here’s how the game developed.

Bad Passing, Bad Play

The Blazers dug a huge hole early in the game by failing to recognize passing opportunities versus shot opportunities. Their opening possessions featured serious overpassing into bad spacing, tossing turnovers right into Denver’s hands and allowing them to run out. After a timeout they stopped that, but they didn’t pick up much player movement. They ended up in isolation attempts, often with Toumani Camara or Deni Avdija holding the ball. That isn’t exactly their strength.

The result was a 23-11 start for Denver. The Nuggets made all 11 of their first 11 field goal attempts in the process. Getting down double digits before the game was even six minutes old put a damper on their chances.

Joker’s Wild

Nikola Jokic had 12 points in the opening 7 minutes of the game, including a pair of three-pointers. In one particularly unfair moment, Deandre Ayton was draped all over Jokic in the coffin corner, defending him as well as humanly possible, sealing off both player and the ball. With nowhere to go, Jokic simply stepped half a step backwards and lofted a crazy-arced shot over Ayton’s outstretched fingers. Naturally it went in. Later Ayton would get called for a foul across Jokic’s arm as Nikola went into his shooting motion beyond the arc. The refs mistakenly called it a non-shooting foul. Of course, the circus shot swished despite Ayton’s hack job. By rights, it should have become a four-point play. That gives you an idea of what the Blazers were up against. And it just never stopped.

Jokic needs to be nerfed in the next NBA update. That’s all there is to it.

Turnovers into Offense

The Blazers could not hold onto the ball to save their lives tonight. They committed 16 turnovers. Not coincidentally, the Nuggets scored 29 fast break points, 14 of them coming in the first period alone. Portland mistakes fed Denver’s transition factory. The Nuggets lead the league in fast break points organically, under perfectly ordinary circumstances. Giving them extra run-outs was a bad, bad idea.

Points in the Paint

The Blazers have had some pretty nice nights recently scoring in the paint. Tonight they were outdone by the Nuggets, though, and it wasn’t even close. We’ll print the stats but we need to put in a warning for children and small kittens to turn away.

Denver scored 88 in the paint. Eighty. Eight. The Blazers generated 46 paint points and were still outscored inside by 42. Yeesh.

Testy Teams

Both sides chirped at the refs throughout the game. In the fourth quarter, the crankiness spread and they started jawing at each other. Jamal Murray got tossed with a pair of technicals early in the final period after letting Toumani Camara hear what he thought of Camara’s defense. Camara also picked up a tech in the exchange, in which his eyes read, “Wait and see…” This is interesting because these same two teams will face each other in 48 hours.