Caught in one of the worst shooting slumps of his season, Monte Morris used laughter to cope with the Nuggets’ Game 2 loss, trading jokes with Will Barton from across Denver’s locker room.
“Shots are going to fall. We don’t need to make adjustments. We know what we’ve got to do. Ain’t time to get in panic mode,” Monte Morris told BSN Denver a few moments later. “… We know what we can control and that’s defense. But we can’t control whether we make shots or not.”
Morris’ confidence didn’t waver following the Trail Blazer’s 97-90 win where Denver held Portland to 42% shooting from the field and 31% from 3, a sentiment that was reflective from the Nuggets’ roster to Michael Malone. But his stat line from Wednesday’s loss was symbolic of where Denver struggled the most. The Nuggets’ backup point guard shot just 1 of 8 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point attempts. Morris is 0-11 from 3 in the playoffs.
“It’s just about us making shots,” Malone said. “We had 90 points. If you think about the four losses we’ve had in the postseason now, we’re shooting 32% from 3 in our losses. Not to oversimplify it, but it’s a make or miss league. We couldn’t make a shot.”
The Nuggets converted on just six of their 29 3-point attempts in Game 2 and per NBA.com’s tracking data, 28 of those 3s were either “open” or “wide open,” with the closest defender at least four feet away. Jamal Murray, who reaggravated a thigh injury which he originally suffered in the Nuggets’ first-round series against the Spurs, shot 2 of 8 from 3. Gary Harris misfired on all five of his 3-pointers and Malik Beasley, who was Denver’s second-most accurate shooter from distance this season and prior to the Game 2 loss was shooting 45.5% from 3, shot only 2 of 6 from beyond the arc.
It wasn’t just 3s that Denver missed. The Nuggets shot 16-26 from the free-throw line and converted on just 42% of their attempts from eight feet and in. No play summed up Denver’s offensive struggles than a fourth-quarter sequence that began to put Portland’s first win of the series on ice.
Jamal Murray, who was playing on a flat tire at this point in the game, came off a Nikola Jokic ball screen but couldn’t elevate for a free-throw line jumper. Jokic then found Gary Harris for an open look from beyond the arc, which missed. Paul Millsap retrieved the offensive rebound for Denver, which the Nuggets had 23 of in Game 2, but then fumbled the ball on a drive to the hoop. Jokic retrieved the loose ball and missed not one but two shots from the restricted area, an area of the floor where he’s shooting 63% in the playoffs.
“We got some good looks,” Malone said. “The shots just didn’t go down.”
As expected, the Trail Blazers adjusted in Game 2. Portland put Moe Harkless on Murray and the 6-foot-9 wing’s size bothered Denver’s point guard at times. After he failed to make a noticeable impact in Game 1, Harkless was a key figure for Portland in the first half, drained a 3 and tallied five points to go with four rebounds before suffering an ankle sprain that ended his night prematurely. He’s questionable for Game 2.
While the Nuggets did a good job limiting Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum to a combined 34 points on 13 of 37 shooting, the Trail Blazers got solid contributions from Rodney Hood (15 points) and Zach Collins (10 points, six rebounds) off their bench.
“A little bit,” Millsap said when asked if he was surprised by the adjustments Portland made in Game 2. “They made adjustments, and that’s what the playoffs is all about. So, we’ll make our adjustments, and we’ll come out with a better mindset, a more aggressive mindset, and we’ll be fine.”
In many ways, Game 2 was déjà vu for the Nuggets who experienced similar shooting struggles in their opening playoff game of their first-round series against the Spurs. Denver shot 6 of 28 from 3-point range that night and fell 101-96 to San Antonio, immediately relinquishing the homecourt advantage it had worked all season to secure. But the Nuggets were able to capture an elusive victory in San Antonio in Game 4, something Denver hadn’t done since 2012.
The Nuggets will have to accomplish something similar if they want to move on to the Western Conference finals. The Trail Blazers are yet to lose at home in the playoffs and Denver hasn’t won a playoff game in Portland since 1986.
“Those are great shots that we want to get,” said Gary Harris. “We just didn’t knock them down. But we have a next-play mentality. We just have to keep shooting them, and those are going to fall next game.
“We just have to be better. We have to come out more physical, be ready to play in Portland, and those shots will fall.”
