Denver Nuggets: 3 things to watch going into the Semi-finals

After closing out with an impressive defensive win against the San Antonio Spurs in game seven, the Denver Nuggets are set to face off against the Portland Trail Blazers and a red-hot Damian Lillard who had 50 points including a 37-foot dagger to eliminate the Thunder the last time he stepped foot on an NBA court. 

During the regular season the Nuggets won the season series against the Trail Blazers 3-1 but split the last 2 games of the series after Portland startic center Jusef Nurkic went down at the end of March with a broken leg as part of a home-and-home at the end of the season which included a starting line up of Mason Plumlee, Trey Lyles and a heavy helping of 24 minutes each for Isaiah Thomas and Juan Hernangomez. Denver also rested Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap and Jamal Murray resulting in a 115-108 loss that has vary little relevance on the series as a whole.

One thing will be certain that each game can very easily come down to the wire where playoffs veterans like the Portland   of C. J. McCollum and Lillard are expected to make plays down the stretch, but for all the veteran leadership on the Trail Blazers side Denver has shown they can compete with the most veteran of playoff teams on the back of All-Star center Nikola Jokic and the streaky but inferno-hot shooting performances of Jamal Murray.

During the series with the Spurs things changed for Denver as the series progressed. Torrey Craig has started since game 4 of the series and changed the look of the Nuggets starting lineup with better defense and great efficiency from the field on a low number of shots. Paul Millsap hasn’t looked as good as he was at the end of the regular season and has struggled to make an impact in the post albeit against larger players while Jokic occupies the perimeter or at the elbow to distribute the ball or drive to the rim.