Game Thread PLAYOFFS: ROUND 1, GAME 5: BLAZERS @ NUGGETS - JUNE 1, 2021 - TUESDAY, 6:00, NBATV & NBCSNW

This was such a crushing loss. Portland hasn't let slip such an NBA-defining moment since the 2000 Western Conference Finals. If anybody other than Dame could've contributed just a little fucking bit, this would be remembered as one of the all-time greatest playoff performances.

But we lost. And now we are facing a first round exit. Nobody but loyal Dame fans and the record keepers will remember this performance. Fucking tragic.

 

What we see:



What Monte Morris sees:

 

Me... I would have thought.

Well, not Turner, but Hark and Aminu. Melo’s horrific rebounding puts the cherry on top of our already terrible 2nd unit D. RoCo is great in many ways but doesn’t rebound like Aminu. Nurk fouled out trying to contest a shot that RoCo didn’t.

 

Jokic 1 foul in 46 minutes of play.
Blazers 31 fouls
Nuggets 24 fouls
Blazers foul out three starters. Nurk plays a grand total of 24 minutes in a double over time game.

Even Kanter had 4 fouls.

 

Maybe if Portland hadn't fallen behind by 22 points we wouldn't have to tear our hair over missed dunk and out of bounds.

 

That seems to be the way the players are responding. They are blaming bad defense to begin the game and having to work to come back.
Can't say i disagree. Over 5 mins in the game and the score was Blazers 1 Nuggets 14.
In the first two minutes the Blazers missed 4 wide open looks from 3.
Blazers also gave up 3 offensive rebounds that gave the Nuggets 7 second chance points in the first 5 possessions.

Things like that lose games.

 

Whole damn team let dame down this game

 

He was right though. Nurk gets called for those stupid moving screens when every team, including Denver, do the same thing on literally every offensive possession.

 

Had anyone other than Dame been able to do anything positive in either OT, the Blazers would have had to give the game ball to Michael Malone for his stupid insistence on playing Dame straight up with Rivers. I can only imagine how a Nuggets board would have roasted him for that.

 

It wasn’t even a moving screen though. It was about as clear cut of a legal screen as there is. Rivers just played it off like he was hurt.

Shit like that makes the NBA almost unwatchable for me.

 

So…….can we make this a permanent thing? Asking for a forum………..