The season is over and the stage is set, the Denver Nuggets are taking on the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2020-21 NBA playoffs. The last time these two faced off in the postseason, the Nuggets ended up losing in seven and the series was a long one with Game 3 reaching 4OT.
Two years on and a lot has changed for these two franchises. Portland has roughly held their standing in the league before dropping off slightly this season and Denver has slowly grown into a perennial championship contender.
Funnily enough, a lot of the same weaknesses from the 2019 playoff series remain the same, the major differences are that Nikola Jokic is now an MVP-level player and Jamal Murray is out, nursing his torn ACL.
One thing remains the same though, the Denver Nuggets are elite on the offensive end, powered by their star Serbian and now flanked by several athletic finishers and shooters. Here’s a list of targets the Denver Nuggets can attack on that end of the court in their first-round series against Portland.