3. The Bosnian Beast
During this past month and the Blazers’ winning streak, Jusuf Nurkic has been playing his best basketball of the season. He continued that trend on Tuesday night.
The Bosnian Beast was in full effect, scoring 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting. He also grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked four shots, dished out three assists and had two steals.
The Rockets like to use a small, 3-point shooting lineup and Blazers took full advantage of the mismatches with the smaller Houston defenders.
His presence down low opened up the offense for his teammates because the Rockets had to send multiple defenders at him. Even their starting center, Clint Capela, couldn’t contain Nurkic down low or on the glass. Houston had no answer for Nurkic.
On the defensive side, Nurkic was a handful down low. He was contesting a lot of shot attempts and clogged the lane with his big frame. If the Rockets scored in the paint, it wasn’t going to be easy with Nurkic on the floor.
He was engaged early and throughout the entire game. It was nice to see him be someone the Blazers could look to and call upon to pick up the slack with Lillard and McCollum cold.