Denver Nuggets: 3 takeaways from Game 1 win vs. Blazers
3. Limiting half of Portland’s dynamic duo
While Damian Lillard did his best to keep the Blazers in this game, his backcourt mate couldn’t answer the bell in the loss. In 37 minutes of action, CJ McCollum scored just 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field.
This relatively lackluster performance was a far cry from the scoring prowess he showed in Portland’s first round matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Across those five games, McCollum averaged 24.4 points per game shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from beyond the arc.
His play was what helped the Blazers to such a convincing victory against OKC. It provided head coach Terry Stotts with a secondary ball-handler capable of spelling for Lillard and having the offense run through him at times.
Ahead of Nuggets-Blazers, I wrote about the importance of CJ McCollum and how he can change the series while most of the attention will go to Damian Lillard https://t.co/IqcnHnLkmk pic.twitter.com/eCvcDLG4Ro
— Chef Boyar Dreese (@KhadriceRollins) April 29, 2019
Outside of both Lillard and CJ, Portland doesn’t really have any consistent offensive weapons to turn to. When one or both struggle, it becomes incredibly difficult for the Blazers to pull out a victory.
Lillard is a perennial All-Star and a much tougher player to slow down. If the Nuggets can limit McCollum’s scoring output as they did in Game 1, they’ll put themselves in a great position at the defensive end to limit an offense that ranked third in efficiency over the course of the regular season.