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The Portland Trail Blazers (13-14) are back on the road again tonight versus the Denver Nuggets (9-16). Portland will try to build on their encouraging win Tuesday night.
After four straight losses, the Portland Trail Blazers had their best all-around team victory of the year Tuesday night over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defense forced Russell Westbrook into an inefficient night and took advantage of his offensively challenged teammates. Ultimately, the game was out of reach heading into the fourth quarter and Billy Donovan elected to sit Westbrook.
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The Thunder might not be a great offensive team, but they are excellent at defense (7th overall in the NBA). The fact Portland had no issues scoring against the Thunder is a great sign. With Evan Turner and Allen Crabbe officially out of their slumps, the bench is now a weapon. How can Portland carry over the momentum to win a difficult Nuggets match up?
Rebound
The Nuggets pull down a league-high 49.2 rebounds per game. The lead the league by far in rebound differential at +7.8 per game. Having nearly eight more possessions a game is substantial. Portland is rebounding much better these days, but still ranks towards the bottom of the league. Rebounding is not everything, but it will demoralize the Blazers if they have to make multiple stops every time down the floor due to lack of rebounding. The Nuggets European tandem of Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic have caused issues for the Trail Blazers this year in the first two match ups.
Prepare for a shootout
Unfortunately, it appears Al-Farouq Aminu will sit this one out with his back problems. In games where Aminu does not feature this year, Portland’s defense has been awful, at best. If the Blazers want to steal another victory in Denver, they will need to score quite a few points. Fortunately, the Nuggets tend to allow that. Like Portland, Denver ranks near the bottom in nearly every defensive metric.
This game should be a shootout, which is fine with the Trail Blazers. They are comfortable in high-scoring affairs versus the Nuggets. Twice already this year, Portland beat Denver with both teams over the 100 point mark. Look for the exact same scenario tonight as Portland should move to 3-0 verses Denver.
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