In this tense duel, Damian Lillard’s teammates attack the meeting very well. The pistoleros Norman Powell and CJ McCollum indeed quickly find the sights at long distance while Jusuf Nurkic is essential in the racket of the Nuggets. On the side of the latter, Austin Rivers continues on his pace of Game 3 but finds himself alone since Nikola Jokic lacks efficiency.
Damian Lillard Across
In order to stay at a reasonable distance from the premises, Monte Morris scores from his first balloons, like Carmelo Anthony. On the side of Nikola Jokic, we gently build up pressure as the match progresses but Jusuf Nurkic responds to him on the other side and therefore offers us an interesting duel against the Serbian (32-24).
By depriving themselves of Enes Kanter at the start of the second quarter, Portland tries to play it “small ball” to preserve its advantage but JaMychal Green takes over from Monte Morris and allows his team to pick up the score. Except that the return of the holders, the Blazers resume their ease.
Damian Lillard certainly only scores points on the throwing line but does not forget to feed his lieutenants at the rendezvous. More aggressive, Nikola Jokic tries to bring his team up to level but Jusuf Nurkic holds up the shock in his duel in the Balkans. Thanks to a big performance from his soldiers, Damian Lillard can get a hole and still go to the locker room with 10 lengths ahead (57-47).
Norman Powell in a state of grace
And the match starts again as it started. As aggressive as possible, Norman Powell continues his offensive festival. Halfway, off or near the circle: the 2019 champion is the total for the men of Mike Malone. And it does not take more for his teammates to follow in his wake, like Jusuf Nurkic who wins on both sides of the floor, while Melo celebrates his 37th birthday as it should.
Denver suffers completely. Author of 19 points in this 3rd quarter, the Colorado franchise is dominated and loses its nerves like JaMychal Green who takes his technique. Add to that the 1/9 distance over this period and you get a gap of almost 30 points for Portland before entering the last 12 minutes (93-69).
Under these conditions, the fourth quarter is synonymous with “garbage time”. Denver certainly picks up a little but the stars are resting especially in view of Game 5 and let the benches finish the meeting following a few baskets from CJ McCollum removing any hope of a potential comeback from the visitors. Widely beaten (115-95), the Nuggets still did the essentials by regaining the home advantage during these two games in Portland.
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