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Fresh off of an exhilarating first-round series win, the Denver Nuggets had a forgettable showing in Game 1 versus the Los Angeles Clippers. The two teams were tied after the first quarter but the Clippers dominated the rest of the way to cruise to a 120-97 victory.
The Nuggets knew something had to change in Game 2, and it did.
Denver led wire-to-wire in Game 2 on Saturday after Jamal Murray scored a team-high 27 points and Nikola Jokic had 26 points and 18 rebounds. The Nuggets were up by as many as 23 points in the second half as Michael Porter Jr. made several key plays to keep Denver up.
The Nuggets certainly flipped the script in Game 2 but Porter said on Sunday the Game 1 loss didn’t sit well with the players on the team. They immediately looked to get better afterward and Porter thought what he could have changed to make a difference.
It definitely bothered us. Me, personally, it really, really bothered me. I was in my room for a while just thinking of all the stuff I could have done better. None of us came with the right energy and the Clippers are a really, really talented team so with that talent, and them outworking us, it’s going to get ugly. We have to make sure that every single night we’re playing as hard as we can and battling every night to win this series.
Porter has been credited by head coach Michael Malone of doing a great job in the playoffs of bringing energy and effort off of the bench. Porter said that some nights he may not have it offensively but he can inject life into the team by rebounding and making hustle plays on both ends of the floor.
The Nuggets have worked on improving the communication on the floor, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The team knows they will need to continue to lock in defensively in order to slow down the lethal attack of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and others.
Game 3 is set to tip-off Monday at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.
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