They're a bad matchup for us without Nurk. This is why I wanted San Antonio. Dame always seems to struggle against physical guys with length and Denver has those guys in bunches. And they're throwing double and triple teams at him way out on the wings with Millsap watching passing lanes. Annnnd their biggest strength at the moment with Jokic exposes our biggest weakness without Nurk. We knew defensive rebounding would be problem for us before the series started. All that said, I really feel like we let one slip last night. They made massive shots, but if we could have snuck out with a win, this series woulda been over. I'm worried about Dame breaking down further as this series goes along.
Precisely the reason Dame isnt the greatest Blazer of all time, .. he needs to step up in these later round of the playoffs instead of disappearing like he has been
Fucking Will Barton decided to show up the past two games after playing like literal shit the entire year.
That's really not true. Sure, when Dame or CJ is feeling it, they take on the cape and carry the team to a win, but that's true of all of the great players in this league. That said, guys like Aminu, Curry, Harkless and Hood have all had big contributions in this series. The Blazers had a crap third quarter last night, otherwise they're up 3-1 and this series against the Nuggets is all but over.
Disappearing..... Out of the four games he has really only had one truly bad game, but we won. The only thing that has actually disappeared is his three point shooting.
This is true. I don't feel I underestimated them even though I preferred them over SAS. I felt ( and still do) that youth and inexperience would be Denver's downfall, however maybe that youth gave them an edge in recovery after the Game 3 epic. I didn't foresee the seriousness of Enes's injury. It really showed under the boards yesterday, he's boxing out with only half his body and as good as he's played, half Kanter isn't enough to make up for Yusuf. I've always believed Dame is the best player, but Nurk is the most valuable. I have also never blamed officiating for anything, ever. Plays/Players decide games, not whistles. But even Kevin McHale was puzzled on a few calls yesterday, so I will say the officiating should be better. Two really good teams. This is a 15 round slugfest and I have no idea where or when the knockout punch is coming. I just hope it wasn't yesterday.
The really weird thing is his free throw shooting. He's only shooting 83% for the postseason. That's horrible for Dame. I don't know what's going on with him in that department.
Small sample size. If he just made 2 more over all in all games this series he would be at 91%. The guy has been expending a tremendous amount of energy in both of these series.
Apparently they aren't good, they don't even care about these playoffs, and we should easily win on their home court because it's trash (even though they had the best home record in the entire NBA this season). I understand being frustrated, heck I'm super pissed about yesterday, but some people have completely lost their minds.
Dame has dropped these numbers in 4 games against Denver 39 points, 6 assists, 3 boards and 1 steal in 43 minutes (loss) 14 points, 4 assists, 4 boards and 2 steals in 39 minutes (win) 28 points, 8 assists, 6 boards and 2 steals in 58 minutes ( win) 28 points, 7 assists, 3 boards and 2 steals in 36 minutes (loss) The guy is playing a ton of minutes in this series. He scores in the 4th, even when he's having a bad game. I don't see how anyone can say he disappeared. The Nuggets have built their defense around stopping him. He's also not hitting open shots right now, but I don't see how you can say he disappeared. We wouldn't have even been in the game last night without him.
It's the open shots and FT's that Dame is missing that are a concern. When he is doubled, guys like Curry, Hood, CJ and Aminu were knocking down a very high percentage of shots. So it can't be said he isn't getting support. When he does get open looks, he's just not knocking them down right now. If he's not hitting open shots, and Murray is, it will be very tough to win this series.
Its a hard fought series. What the fuck else you want? Im enjoying fhat other people have had to step up to win 2 games and that every game has been close as hell. Oh, and one last thing: NEVER. DOUBT. DAME.
Minus an over-the-backboard trick shot and two unintentional bank shots by Jokic this thread wouldn't exist. I don't even want to talk about the officiating other than it's unacceptable. You don't become the #2 seed in the west by luck. Denver is good. We don't have Nurk which is a large part of not being able to get a defensive rebound if our lives depended on it. Anyone criticizing Dame for his play this series can suck a bag of deformed Jokic dicks because they don't know what they're talking about. The guy is giving it everything he has. The whole team is.
