Denver-Portland game has intriguing subplots
When asked if matchups against Portland feel a little more personal, perhaps Will Barton’s deliberate pause said more than his words.
“Just know I’m going to go out there and play hard and compete at a high level,” said Barton, a former Trail Blazer. “However you guys want to take that, you can take it.”
Minutes after their rout of Orlando on Saturday night capped an impressive 5-1 homestand for Barton and the Nuggets, the chatter quickly pivoted to Monday’s showdown at Portland. It’s the first meeting of the Northwest Division teams this season. And more subplots surround these teams than most, with trades and playoff stakes at the center of recent meetings.
Before Russell Westbrook’s dagger 3-pointer officially knocked the Nuggets out of playoff contention last April, the Trail Blazers dealt them a massive blow with a lateMarch victory at the Moda Center. Jusuf Nurkic, the previously disgruntled Nugget who was traded to Portland in February for Mason Plumlee, wished his old team a “happy summer” in a postgame oncourt interview after racking up a career-high 33 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots.
So Portland went to the playoffs, where it was swept by the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Denver, meanwhile, signed coveted free agent Paul Millsap during the offseason to pair with Nikola Jokic, who continues to blossom into a multiskilled star. Denver is 8-5, while Portland dropped to 6-6 after a surprising home loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
As for the players involved in last season’s trade?
Nurkic quickly became a fan favorite after helping propel Portland back to the postseason, and enters Monday’s game averaging 15.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game as the inside complement to the Trail Blazers’ lethal backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. But Nurkic was benched for all but 53 seconds of the fourth quarter against the Nets, reportedly due to a lack of defensive hustle.
Plumlee, meanwhile, is averaging 6.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in a sometimes inconsistent role, with Denver coach Michael Malone acknowledging that it’s been challenging to effectively divide the minutes between Plumlee and fellow backup Kenneth Faried behind Jokic and Millsap.
Jokic downplayed any lingering feelings of “revenge” heading into Monday’s game in Portland, noting the importance of each game because “we want to achieve something and we want to go somewhere.”
Malone also stressed the value of building on Denver’s “unbelievable” homestand, which moved the Nuggets into first place in the NBA’s toughest division by a half game. Denver is 2-3 on the road this season, blowing a lead to the Utah Jazz in its season opener and lacking energy early in losses to the Charlotte Hor- nets and New York Knicks.
“We have to keep this thing moving in the right direction,” Malone said.
And, after Barton’s pause and politically correct answer regarding his feelings about the Trail Blazers, he was asked whether there’s a rivalry brewing between the Nuggets and this particular division foe.
“To be a rivalry, you have to meet in the playoffs and things like that,” Barton said. “So I wouldn’t call it that.”