Damian Lillard couldn’t be stopped.
He had just put the finishing touches on a half to remember. Thirty-two points. Eight three-pointers on 11 attempts. Lillard hit from 28, 30 and 37 feet in the first half. He swished step-back threes, triples off the catch, and launched lasers from the Nuggets’ logo at center court.
“It almost looked like we had no answer for him,” Aaron Gordon said.
But Denver did.
At halftime, with the Nuggets leading by 12 but without a solution to stop Lillard, Gordon approached Denver’s coaching staff with a stern message.
“I got him,” said Gordon.
It was a message rooted in competitiveness. Gordon lives for these matchups. He knows his capabilities as a defender and loves testing himself against the NBA’s best. It’s why the Nuggets traded for him, and Gordon is more than willing to fill the role that Denver needs him to.
“I know I’m capable. I just want to make sure the coaches understand that I’m a defender,” Gordon said. “That’s my niche. It doesn’t matter if it’s a point guard or a center. You put me on them and I’ll make it difficult for them.”
Lillard was barely heard from in the second half. He scored 10 points on 2-9 shooting across the third and fourth quarters. Lillard got up only five three-point attempts after halftime.
Gordon’s size and length shut him down.
“That’s one of the reasons we brought AG here, that defensive versatility, and obviously, he embraced it,” Michael Malone said. “He wanted it and that’s the best part about it. This is something Aaron Gordon has been wanting to do and he just made it hard. Listen, Dame Lillard is an incredible player. We saw that in that first half. But I think Aaron’s size makes it a little bit tougher to get those shots off.”
Shifting Gordon onto Lillard at some point during the series was something that Denver’s coaching staff pondered in the lead-up to the first round, Malone said. Facu Campazzo has defended Lillard admirably through two games. He has gone all-out. It’s commendable, but there’s a limit to how effective Campazzo can be at 5-foot-10. Austin Rivers was in foul trouble throughout much of Game 2, but Shaq Harrison, who didn’t play in Game 1, gave Denver great minutes defending Lillard too.
After Lillard hit his eighth triple of the half at the 1:49 mark of the second, Harrison checked in for his first minutes of the series. He shut Lillard out on the Trail Blazers’ final three possessions of the half.
It was the injection of confidence that the Nuggets desperately needed. Three straight empty trips against Lillard proved that he wasn’t invincible. Lillard actually could be stopped Monday night.
What Harrison started in the second quarter Gordon finished after halftime. Gordon said that Denver’s plan was to have him guard Lillard on the first possession of the third quarter and then see how it goes from there. It obviously went well. He didn’t leave Lillard’s hip for the rest of regulation.
“I love those matchups,” Gordon said.
The Nuggets won’t limit Lillard like they did over the second half of Game 2 throughout the rest of the series. Lillard is too good. He’s too talented and too crafty. He’ll find ways to score and be productive. But to guard any great player in the NBA, you have to throw different looks their way. In Campazzo, Rivers, Harrison and Gordon, Denver has a little bit of everything to try against Lillard.
It could shove Portland’s plans for the series totally off-kilter. The Blazers shot 48.5% from three and got a combined 63 points from Lillard and CJ McCollum in Game 2 but still took the L.
Portland can’t stop Nikola Jokic. Jusuf Nurkic is too soft and Enes Kanter is too slow. The NBA’s MVP got whatever he wanted Monday to the tune of 38 points (15-20 shooting), 8 rebounds, and 5 assists in only 31 minutes of work. After going 1-10 from three-point range in Game 1, Michael Porter Jr. banged home three triples on six attempts. Monte Morris added 12 points off the bench. Paul Millsap, an unsung hero of Game 2, chipped in 15.
It was a beautiful offensive performance from Denver on a night where the game barely flowed. The Nuggets came into Game 2 wanting to bring more physicality to the series, and Denver certainly did.
Heading into a first-quarter timeout, Nurkic brushed shoulders with Porter who then pushed the former Nugget in the back. Both benches emptied. At halftime, there was another altercation between the sides, one that offended Carmelo Anthony so much that he spent the first several minutes of the break at center court pleading with the officials about only God knows what. In the third, Campazzo drew a flagrant foul on CJ McCollum that frustrated Portland even more.
Monday’s third quarter alone took 37 minutes to get through. There were 18 fouls called in the period. All the frequent whistles did was raise the temperature of both teams. Jokic, Porter, Morris and Portland assistant Nate Tibbets were all whistled for technicals in Game 2. Also, is Tibbets OK? Did he really have to charge at Porter during the first quarter dustup?
Carmelo Anthony was mostly silent Monday after his big Game 1, except for when he inserted himself into the center of the action and picked up a flagrant for shoving Jokic in back in the first quarter. Melo tallied only five points on 1-5 shooting to go with five fouls and was a -24 in 21 minutes. Yes, he was booed. Loudly.
After two games, it’s clear that this series will continue to be physical. Both Denver and Portland try to downplay their rivalry publicly, but there’s bad blood between the two sides. The Nuggets were able to emerge from Game 2 the victor. Perhaps more importantly, Gordon was at the center of it.
“We’re not backing down, Gordon said. “I don’t know what they were doing, what they were trying to do on that side.”
This is a huge series for Gordon. It’s a chance for him to make his mark in Denver on the biggest stage that he’s ever played on. This isn’t Orlando and these aren’t the Eastern Conference Playoffs. This is the West, this is the Blazers and that’s Damian Lillard.
This can be his moment.
For Gordon’s first standout playoff moment to also come in a physical, must-win game where the tone for the rest of the series was certainly set is significant. The Nuggets brought Gordon to Denver to defend the likes of LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Luka Doncic. He won’t back down from anyone and fits the Nuggets’ DNA in that respect. If he can shut down Lillard it changes everything for Denver.
“I’m happy where I am. I’m extremely happy where I am,” said Gordon. “I’m here for a reason, and this is where I should be. It’s a beautiful thing how it worked out.”
The best part about the playoffs? He’ll get the chance to prove himself all over again on Thursday in Game 3.
