It takes two: Stars Jokic, Murray pave way to season-opening win
Nuggets coach P O RTLAND, O RE .
Michael Malone wasn’t particularly insightful when he was asked before the game what else center Nikola Jokic, already an MVP candidate, might be able to add to his arsenal.
How about a consistent 3-point shot?
After shooting just 30% from deep last season, Jokic buried three clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets pulled away to win 108-100 over Portland in their season opener Wednesday night. The victory snapped the Trail Blazers’ 18game winning streak in home openers.
Jokic poured in 16 of his 20 points in the final quarter, as he and his pick-and-roll partner, Jamal
Murray, sliced through Portland’s defense. Foul trouble kept Jokic out of rhythm until crunchtime, and Murray had been mired in a poor shooting game until the end.
Together, they cooked up 23 points over the final 12 minutes, meeting the moment on a night that was hardly a crisp effort overall. Denver’s 18 3-pointers helped offset their 19 turnovers.
The Nuggets were up as much as 67-58 in the third quarter before the Trail Blazers slowly chipped away at their lead. New acquisition Hassan Whiteside imposed his will in the frontcourt, dominating on the glass with 16 points and 19 rebounds, and allstar guard Damian Lillard added his usual firepower. Lillard made headway near the hoop and from distance, dropping in 10 of 32 points in the third quarter to put the Blazers up 74-73 going into the fourth.
Heading into Wednesday night, the only question left unanswered from a team that returned an NBA-high 12 of its players was who would start at small forward. That responsibility fell to Will Barton, who won the open small forward competition among himself, Torrey Craig, Michael Porter Jr. and Juancho Hernangomez.
Barton finished with 19 points and 5 rebounds while Porter, the Nuggets’ celebrated rookie, didn’t get in the game.
Prior to the game, Barton was bouncing around in the team’s layup line.
“I’m very excited, anxious,” he said Wednesday, after last year’s injury-plagued campaign. “I just love the game. Start a new season, I missed a lot of last season, so it’s
here, and I’m ready to rock and roll.”
From shootaround until tipoff, the excitement around the team was palpable. After last season’s stinging Game 7 loss to Portland in the conference semifinals, the Nuggets were longing for redemption.
“It’s like Christmas morning,” Malone said earlier Wednesday. “You lose a Game 7 and you spend all offseason working and thinking and finding ways to help your group. You go through September and then training camp and then preseason, and then it’s finally here.
“It’s something you’ve been waiting and waiting for and have marked off on your calendar ever since the calendar came out in early August.”
Wednesday’s season opener couldn’t have started much worse for the Nuggets. Jokic picked up his third foul less than four minutes into the game, and the Nuggets, forced to turn to their bench, hardly skipped a beat.
Few teams outside of Denver could survive — and thrive — without their MVP candidate for the majority of the first half, but they have that luxury. Denver got 26 points from its reserves and shot a blistering 9 for 14 from 3-point range throughout the first half. Improbably, it held a 54-50 lead after two quarters.
While the Nuggets flexed their depth, they weren’t able to shirk their biggest issue this preseason: turnovers. Nuggets starters committed nine of 13 turnovers in the first half, including a handful of careless one that weren’t befitting of a team with their aspirations.
Their next chance to remedy those issues comes Friday night in their home opener against Phoenix.