The Portland Trail Blazers rode and impressive fourth quarter to tame the Denver Nuggets 128-109 on Friday night. Deni Avdija had a tremendous game, finishing with 36 points on 75% shooting from the field. Shaedon Sharpe pitched in with 23, and Dalano Banton had 19.
Denver may have been missing Nikola Jokic, but early on the Blazers weren’t taking advantage of that fact in the least. In fact it looked like the absence of Donovan Clingan was of more importance to the game. Denver got into the paint at will, jumping out to an early 15-6 lead. Porous defense coupled with poor-us shooting made it look like it was going to be a long night for the home team.
That’s not how it played out though. The introduction of Duop Reath helped stabilize the defensive middle, and the Blazers started to make some baskets, capitalizing on second chance points. In fact, the Blazers scored 10 second-chance points in the first quarter compared to none for the Nuggets. The first quarter ended knotted up at 30-30. From that point on it stayed close.
Until the fourth quarter that is. Starting the quarter with a modest six-point lead, Portland notched up the defense, turned up the intensity, and lit the afterburners. It got a bit too frantic at times, but we’ll forgive them as they beat back every challenge, building the lead to as many as 23. Denver had no answer and the Blazers cruised for the last six minutes to tally their fourth win in a row.
Blazer of the Night: Deni Avdija. There is no arguing with a stat line of 36 points on 75% shooting from the field, 66.7% from deep, eight boards and seven assists. When the fourth quarter came, he dialed it up a notch a put the game away. He’s looking like real deal.
Stat of the Night: 26-10 second chance points. Denver got outworked. Badly. When Portland got cold they fought, scrapped and rebounded on the offensive end to keep themselves in the game. When they turned up the intensity Denver couldn’t match. You’d like to see fewer turnover and better shooting, but who cares? Two points after a miss and offensive rebound counts the same as making a mid-range the first time.
What We’ll Remember: No Donovan Clingan. No Anfernee Simons. No problem. When it looked like there would be absolutely no resistance in the middle, Duop Reath stepped up and played one of his more impressive games of the season on both ends of the court. While the Blazers couldn’t replace Simons’ outside shooting, they made up for it with effort, intensity, and offensive boards. Just an impressive lunch pail game for the young Blazers.
Box Score
What’s Next: The Defending Champs. The Blazers will play host to the Boston Celtics Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Pacific. If the Blazers are going to win their fifth in a row they’ll have to earn it.