NBA: Nikola Jokic Leads Nuggets to Game 1 Win vs. Blazers

Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets took it to Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, securing a 113-121 Game 1 in their Western Conference semifinals series.

Jokic exploded for a full stat line with 37 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three 3-pointers, three steals and two blocks. Yes, the Serbian big man did it all. Literally. Jamal Murray played his foil with 23 points of his own and a game-high eight assists. The Nuggets got a spirited performance from 33-year-old veteran Paul Millsap who chimed in with 19 points and six rebounds. Millsap and Jokic were bullying the Blazers’ frontcourt all night.

To be fair, Portland’s Enes Kanter played through a sore shoulder and soldiered on in this game to finish with 26 points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes. As expected, Damian Lillard poured in the points with a game-high 39 but succumbed to the Nuggets’ pressure and wound up committing six turnovers on the night. C.J. McCollum struggled with his shot in this game, going 7-for-17 from the field to end the night with 16 points. The Blazers are going to need him to get comfortable and find his range, if they want to steal a game from Denver.

In the other game of the night, Jimmy Butler stepped up for an ailing Joel Embiid (gastroenteritis) and delivered a 30-point, 11-rebound double-double to help the Sixers even their series with the Raptors with a 94-89 Game 2 win. Despite being slowed by his illness, Embiid did manage to slow down Toronto’s Pascal Siakam who shot 9-of-25 from the field to achieve his 21 points.

The Raptors got a solid performance from one the world’s best two-way players, Kawhi Leonard, who delivered 35 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The Sixers simply had enough composure in the fourth quarter to fend off the Raptors’ late-game run. The race for the Eastern Conference crown is exciting with each of the last four teams remaining having solid chances to advance to the NBA finals.