![]() ![]() Thursday’s all about the feint and the counter. Game 1s are part prep work, part feeling-out-dances. He wants to win a championship.”Īs to that last point, this is the part of the series where Malone earns his money. “Why is that? I think he’s using his 6-10 frame, 7-foot wingspan, and most importantly, he cares. “I think this season has by far been Michael’s best defensive season of his very young career,” the coach continued. “A game-winning type of play,” Malone added. And then it started a break and (Gordon) had the big dunk.” “I tried my hardest to look for my teammates through the crowd and found KCP. “I just remember getting on the floor for it and easily could have been a jump ball,” MPJ recalled. And never moreso than with 2:32 left in the game while on the business end of a mad scramble following a missed Davis tip-in that would’ve pulled Los Angeles to within three.Ī prone Porter, while lying on his back, wrestled the rock free from the prying hands of AD and the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura, shoveling it to teammate Kentavius Caldwell-Pope to start a breakaway on the other end and a two-handed Aaron Gordon dunk that put the hosts up six, 127-121. Jamal Murray (12 minutes) and Nikola Jokic (10:09) logged more fourth-quarter time on Tuesday night than MPJ (9:43), but the latter made his seconds count. MPJ rolls into Game 2 Thursday night at Ball Arena leading the Nuggets in playoff fourth-quarter plus-minus, playoff fourth-quarter 3-point makes per game and playoff fourth-quarter blocks per game (0.3). Only Steph Curry (1.5) was averaging more fourth-quarter 3-point makes than Porter’s 1.3. Scoreboard be danged.Īs of early Wednesday, among NBA players with at least eight postseason appearances this spring, only Miami’s duo of Jimmy Butler (plus-4.4) and Duncan Robinson (plus-4.7), the Lakers’ Anthony Davis (plus-4.1) and Heat center Bam Adebayo (plus-3.9) had a better fourth-quarter plus-minus rating in the postseason than MPJ’s plus-3.7. The stats say - not so much say as scream - that the best thing for the Nuggets collectively is for Porter to be on the floor in crunch time late. “So it’s just another example of a guy being selfless, realizing that this is much bigger than any individual. “He came up to me during the Phoenix series and said, ‘Listen, man, if you want to get Bruce (Brown) in at the end of a game, whatever you think is going to help us win the game, I just want to win,’” Nuggets coach Michael Malone recalled after MPJ’s double-double (15 points, 10 boards), along with a clutch steal late, helped the hosts escape Tuesday night with a 1-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. He won’t turn your stomach to mush or a sure victory into a slasher film. He won’t ruin two hours of good work with 10 minutes of madness. is a closer, OK? And not the Wade Davis kind. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu ![]()
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