Brick by brick, the boos started to trickle out. With three minutes remaining in the first half, Nikola Jokic whipped a pass to a wide-open Malik Beasley at the top of the arc. Beasley set and fired his belongs-in-an-instructional-video jumper, but the shot glanced off the front rim. On Denver’s next time down the floor, Beasley barreled into the lane, absorbed a fouled and got to the line but missed both free throws.
Missed opportunities were a common theme Wednesday at Pepsi Center, which got so frustrated by the lack of shotmaking before halftime, it couldn’t help but voice its displeasure.
“Booooooooooo,” the crowd hit the home team with after Jamal Murray missed a 16-footer and corner 3 in a span of five seconds.
Harsh? Probably. Denver, the eighth-youngest postseason team in NBA history, has overachieved this season, and its Game 2 performance was a matter of going cold at the worst possible time. But in the crowd’s defense, the numbers from the final four minutes before halftime weren’t pretty. Denver went 0-for-8 from the field, missed all five 3s it attempted and scored zero points. A terrible shooting night doomed the Nuggets, who fell in Game 2 97-90 as the Trail Blazers evened up the second-round series at one game a piece.
“We got some good looks, but I felt in that first half especially if you’re not making shots, maybe attack the basket,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Maybe get to the foul line. Maybe get to the rim.”
In a lot of ways, what happened Wednesday was reminiscent of Game 1 against the Spurs. The Trail Blazers, determined not to get beat inside after Nikola Jokic demolished them in the series opener, double-teamed him any time he caught the ball in the post.
“Did you see Game 1?” C.J. McCollum said. “He almost had 40.”
Jokic was deliberate in trying to find the holes in the defense. He attempted only five shots in the first half. He could have done more early on, but so could his teammates. The Nuggets went 4 of 20 from 3 in the first half and finished 6 of 29 from distance overall — a mark almost identical to their 6-of-28 3-point shooting performance versus the Spurs in their first playoff game.
“Not to oversimplify it, but it’s a make or miss league,” Malone said. “We couldn’t make a shot.”
The Nuggets were an inconsistent jump-shooting team during the regular season. They ranked 17th in 3-point percentage (35.1%) despite being stocked with guys with picturesque strokes. They retook control of the series against San Antonio by connecting on 46.2% of their looks from downtown in Games 2-5. The extra pressure on Jokic slowed considerably after that.
“They stopped doubling him after that,” Malone said. “In order to make them pay, you’ve got to make shots, and tonight we had a hard time doing that.”
You can grow blue in the face talking about adjustments the Nuggets need to make ahead of Game 3, which is Friday in Portland. But this series probably boils down to this: If Denver can make enough shots to keep Portland from swarming Jokic every time he touches the ball, it will likely win. None of Enes Kanter, Zach Collins or Al-Farouq Aminu stand a chance guarding Denver’s bear of a center.
Jamal Murray and Gary Harris will need to shoot better than 2 of 13 from 3, which they combined to do in Game 2. Monte Morris, who has yet to connect on a 3 in 11 attempts this postseason, will need to rediscover his stroke. Ditto for Will Barton, who’s 6 of 29 from 3 in the playoffs.
With the way the Nuggets shot the ball, it was semi-miraculous they were in the game well into the fourth quarter. They grabbed 23 offensive rebounds, two more than they snatched in any regular season game. They also held in check Damian Lillard, goading him into a 5-of-17 shooting performance. Portland led by as many as 17. Denver cut it to as few as five with 35 seconds to go but could never get over the hump as it shot 16 of 26 from the free throw line and 10 of 24 in the final quarter.
“They didn’t even play that good to be honest,” Jokic said. “They can play better than that. It was kind of a weird game, weird day.”
Jokic finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds and six assists even though he was going against multiple defenders all night. There were spots when he could have been more aggressive, but mostly, he needed more help.
Denver’s supporting cast stepped up after Game 1 in the San Antonio series. How Murray, Harris and the others respond after an eerily similar Game 2 against Portland will determine if the Nuggets can keep pushing forward in the postseason.
