2 Studs & 3 Duds from Timberwolves massive game 6 win over Nuggets
By Ben Handler
Dud #2: Michael Porter Jr.
The other obvious candidate to create some offense and supplement some of the lack of scoring from Murray is MPJ. But Porter shot just 3/9 on the night, 1/6 from three, and scored just 8 points in 30 minutes.
When Porter isn’t making shots, he can be a hindrance to the team as he doesn’t impact the game in many other ways. The Nuggets’ offense is very reliant on his floor spacing and shot-making, but last night it was nowhere to be found. This causes a trickle-down effect throughout the lineup, and forces lesser players to do too much.
It’s not all on MPJ, but when Murray is having an off night and Porter Jr. can’t add secondary scoring, we get a night like last night where the Nuggets team muster a pathetic 70 points total. Everyone knows that Porter has been dealing with distractions all over the place as he has three different brothers dealing with legal issues.
MPJ was able to drown out the noise and put together a good first series and I don’t want to blame his poor round 2 performance on distractions, but it’s human nature for his mind to wander at a certain point. If the Nuggets can’t find scoring from Murray or Porter Jr. they are in big trouble as we saw on Thursday night.