Back to reality

The Blazers got a shellacking in Denver last night, leaving them in a 1-1 tie in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series with the Nuggets. The Portland squad ran their predictable offense and their spacey defense, and they got pounded. Damian Lillard had a big night, as always, but everybody else was average or below. The body language of the team wasn't good. 

Portland turned the ball over almost twice as much as they usually do. C.J. McCollum and Big Joe Nurkic were atrocious in that department. Nurkic fouled out as his nemesis, Jokic, scored 38.

Denver played rough. Things got chippy early and often. Lil' Facundo, Denver's Argentinian guard, showed up and got into people's faces. The referees did a poor job of handling the extracurricular stuff, and by the end of the game both teams were loudly voicing disgust with the officiating. Let's hope that crew gets the rest of the playoffs off.

Now it's back to Portlandia for a couple of games, the first of which is Thursday. The Nuggets will have to win one out of three games in Portland to take the series. Portland will have to play at least one, and maybe two, more games in Colorado.

Both teams are talented and determined. They both think they're going to advance to the next round. But Portland had better come up with some wrinkles to put Denver off balance. Last night, the Blazers let the Noogies off way too easy.