Denver Nuggets-Portland Trail Blazers: What first two games mean for the LA Clippers
This series is an interesting one. The Nuggets come in as the third seed, and the Blazers come in as the sixth.
The Nuggets were everything a championship contender was until Denver guard Jamal Murray got hurt and was ruled out for the the remainder of the season.
They still are viewed as contenders by some, but it’ll be tough without their point guard, who was having the best year of his career.
The Trail Blazers enter as the lower seed, but have an incredible six-time All-Star in Damian Lillard who has beaten this year’s MVP front-runner, Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic before in the playoffs. The Nuggets and Blazers played in the playoffs in 2019, and Portland came out on top.
The Nuggets lost home-court advantage by splitting these games at home, and that’s good news for Clippers fans. The Clippers only beat the Nuggets one of three times.
One of those wins was also without Murray. The Clippers have a roster that can easily compete with Denver, but the Clippers have played much better vs. the Trail Blazers than they have vs. the Nuggets this year. The Clippers were 3-0 vs. the Trail Blazers this season.
If the Clippers can get hot and move on to the second round of the playoffs, they’ll be feeling confident. If both the Clippers and Trail Blazers move on, they’ll be licking their chops at the possible Western Conference Finals matchup between the two teams.