Denver came in and got an extremely important win over Portland.
The Denver Nuggets came in on a downward spiral plagued from a week from blown leads and miscommunication. In this match up, they shored up these miscues. The Nuggets were able to prevail over the division rival, Trail Blazers, for a few reasons.
Denver Nuggets
The first takeaway from this win has to be Nikola Jokic. Jokic bounced back nicely nearly getting a double double and straight up bullying former teammate, Jusuf Nurkic. Nurkic was virtually ineffective on the glass for Portland.
Denver also did a great job defending the three point shot. Portland was only able to make 27.3% of their three point opportunities on the night giving the Nuggets plenty of fast break opportunities. Needless to say, the Nuggets playing this type of stingy on the road was a pleasant surprise. Especially since we are more accustomed to seeing at home and the team struggling mightily on the road.
The next takeaway from this win is how Denver owned the glass. The Nuggets out rebounded the Blazers 49-34. This massive margin had a lot to do with the big margin in the scoring column. The Blazers have to be somewhat embarrassed their starting center, Nurkic, was only able to come down with a one measly board.
Denver seems to be finally getting back their solid offensive habits from last year and is now crashing the boards effectively. The Nuggets offense has had a bit of a slow start this year, but they are finally starting to mesh and develop a chemistry.
If the Nuggets can keep up these type of rebounding numbers, then their offense will sky rocket in production especially when it comes to second chance points and fast break opportunities.
Next: Nuggets at Blazers grades
The Nuggets played great in this match up and now they need to formulate a way to string together a good win streak.