Denver newcomer Austin Rivers stole the spotlight from Nikola Jokic with a fourth-quarter outburst.
With a little less than four minutes to go in a tight playoff game, Kia MVP front-runner Nikola Jokic, at 6-foot-11, was being defended by 6-7 Robert Covington. Austin Rivers, initially signed by the Denver Nuggets to a 10-day contract less than six weeks ago, saw the mismatch and decided it was his time to shine.
Rivers drained a step-back jumper over CJ McCollum, three of his 16 fourth-quarter points that helped the Nuggets withstand a comeback from the Portland Trail Blazers and pull out a 120-115 victory in Portland on Thursday. With the win, the Nuggets took a 2-1 series lead and regained home-court advantage in their first round series.
Here are some notes from a game the Nuggets won despite being outscored, 50-26, in the restricted area.
Number to know
52-36 — The Blazers ranked 29th defensively this season, allowing 115.3 points per 100 possessions. But they were much better with Jusuf Nurkic on the floor (allowing 108.2 per 100) than they were with him off the floor (116.6). That was the eighth-biggest differential among players who played at least 750 minutes for a single team this season.
That trend has continued into the playoffs. And in a five-point loss on Thursday, the Blazers were outscored, 52-36, with Nurkic off the floor. Those 52 Denver points came on just 36 offensive possessions, a rate of 144 per 100.
Nurkic first sat down with 5:03 left in the first quarter and the Blazers up 26-20. With Enes Kanter on the floor in Nurkic’s place, Denver proceeded to score 19 points on their final 10 possessions of the period, turning that six-point deficit into a nine-point lead. With that, Nurkic was on the floor for the entire second quarter.
Kanter got a second chance late in the third quarter but committed a flagrant foul on Jokic and was replaced by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (who had previously played just garbage time in Game 2) just 47 seconds after he subbed in for Nurkic. And when Nurkic fouled out with 5:17 left in the fourth, Blazers coach Terry Stotts chose to replace him with Covington and play two guards and three forwards.
That didn’t work, either. The Nuggets scored 15 points on their next seven possessions, with Rivers draining three 3s and Jokic twice taking advantage of Covington in the post. The Blazers couldn’t match that production and fell into a 10-point hole before draining four consecutive 3s to make things a little interesting at the end.
Through three games, the Blazers have allowed 112.8 points per 100 possessions in 89 minutes with Nurkic on the floor. That’s not great (the league average was 111.7 in regular season), but in 55 minutes with Nurkic off the floor, the Blazers have allowed 138.4 per 100. That’s bad.
A bit of film
The Nuggets scored just nine points on their first 10 possessions of Game 3, with Nurkic able to contest one Rivers pick-and-roll drive without fouling …
The floodgates opened for Denver when Kanter was in the game. Here, McCollum “ices” an approaching Jokic screen to keep Rivers from getting to the middle of the floor. But when Rivers rejects the screen, Kanter isn’t in position to stop his drive to the rim …
When the Blazers played small down the stretch, the Nuggets posted Jokic against Covington. Carmelo Anthony rotated over, but didn’t commit to a strong double-team. Damian Lillard rotated down, but didn’t get on the basket side of Aaron Gordon. So Gordon sealed Lillard and Jokic found him for an easy dunk …
Can’t play Kanter?
Down 2-1, the Blazers will be in a desperate situation in Game 4 on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, TNT). Nurkic can’t play 48 minutes, but can Kanter play? The Blazers’ small-ball options aren’t great, but they could, instead of having Nurkic check out so early in the first quarter, mirror his minutes with those of Jokic and hope that he doesn’t pick up so many fouls. Playing Hollis-Jefferson at the five against the Nuggets’ second unit is more tenable than trying to guard the likely MVP with somebody 6-7.
The Nuggets can hope for a better game from Michael Porter Jr., who scored just 15 points on Thursday with defensive issues of his own. That they got a victory in Portland without a big game from Porter is a huge bonus. And if he can give them a lift in Game 4, they can take complete control of the series.
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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