Portland Trail Blazers: 3 takeaways from Game 1 loss vs. Nuggets

2. They left some points at the line

Free throws may be only worth one point, but they can easily be the difference between winning and losing when everything else is equal. That was definitely the case on Monday night. Portland went 20-of-27 from the free throw line in Game 1. By contrast, Denver outclassed them at the charity stripe by going 27-of-31.

What makes things even more gut-wrenching for Blazers fans is that most of the misses came in the final quarter of the game. Portland shot 12-of-13 from the line through the first three quarters, then proceeded to go 8-of-14 in the fourth. That 57.1 percent mark is fine for a field goal percentage, but not for free throws; it fell 19.5 percent below league average.

Mathematically, even if the Blazers made all of their freebies, they still would’ve fallen short by a point. However, the point isn’t that free throws were the only reason the Blazers lost. It’s that in such an even matchup against a division rival, leaving that many points on the table will set you back in a game where the margin for error is slim. A few more made free throws could have altered Denver’s strategy of closing the game, possibly keeping Portland in striking distance a little longer.