Norman Powell led the charge for the Blazers on the offensive end with a game-high 29 points in Portland's 115-95 victory.
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After losing two straight games, the Portland Trail Blazers came out and dominated the Denver Nuggets in Game 4 of their best of seven series. Norman Powell led the charge for the Blazers on the offensive end with a game-high 29 points in Portland’s 115-95 victory. Portland evens the series at 2-2
N ? R M A N pic.twitter.com/MbpzuaYLJn
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) May 29, 2021
The Trail Blazers broke things wide open during the third quarter, as they outscored the Nuggets by 17 points. In the end, that deficit proved to be too much for Denver to overcome. As a result, the fourth quarter was largely garbage time with both teams emptying their benches.
At one point in time, Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic were teammates on the Nuggets. Then, the Nuggets decided to stick with Jokic and traded away Nurkic. Now, the former teammates are rivals in the first-round series and they had two very contrasting performances.
Jokic has had a stellar season, and he’s very likely going to be crowned MVP in the coming weeks. But he had a rough outing in Game 4. It was his worst game of the series by far, Jokic finished with 16 points on 7 for 18 shooting with just one assist and two turnovers.
Jokic’s poor play was down to one reason, as Nurkic made things consistently difficult for him on the offensive end. Nurkic also made him work defensively by going right at him. While Jokic had his worst game of the series, Nurkic had his best. He tallied 17 points on only eight shots. It was just one game, but if it was the first time you saw either guy play, you would have come away thinking that Nurkic is the better big man. If Nurkic continues to keep Jokic silent, the Blazers will have higher chances of winning the series.
Damian Lillard didn’t have his best game, he scored just 10 points. Luckily, he had plenty of help from his mates. If someone told you before the game that Lillard was going to score just 10 total points, you’d probably assume that the Blazers were not going to be able to pull out a win. Lillard was Portland’s fifth-leading scorer in Game 4, as the Blazers got other major contributions from Norman Powell (29 points), C.J. McCollum (21 points), and Jusuf Nurkic (17 points).
All tied up. @McDonalds Game Highlights ? pic.twitter.com/3PFBiabzTM
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) May 30, 2021
Lillard is obviously going to bounce back, but In Game 4, the Blazers showed that they have other players capable of carrying the load. This could serve as a confidence booster for the rest of the Portland roster.
