The things you can do in Denver when you’re Nikola Jokic, another great performance, his teammates compare him to Tom Brady!
Nikola Jokic continues his onslaught. There were some doubters that the Nuggets would be tired after a grueling battle with the Spurs in the first round, but they play like men possessed in Denver, Colorado.
The Serbian player had 37 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Murray added 23 points, Millsap 19, Malone was afraid of them being emotionally exhausted but thankfully that wasn’t the case. They had 27 free throws of which 12 were Jokic’s.
On the other side Lillard had 39 points but his three point game was not as good as in the past games, he made 4 out of 12. Kanter played very well, especially in the first half. The Turkish center who’s playing instead of the hurt Nurkic finished the match with 26 points.
On a side note, Millsap compared Jokic with Tom Brady and most analysts think that Portland doesn’t stand a chance unless they find a way to stop the Serbian center.
The next match is tomorrow, yet again at the “Pepsi Center”.
It’s a tie in Canada, 35 points from Kawhi Leonard weren’t enough, Jimmy Butler made the series even for Philadelphia. He played very well and had 30 points, which was the key to winning a match with a small total number of points where both teams had terrible shooting percentages.
What’s interesting is that this is the first win for the Sixers in Canada in the last 7 years. The Raptors were 19 points behind at half time but managed to come back but in the end Danny Green missed equalizing three after which Harris finished them off.
Boban Marjanovic was in the game for only 85 seconds, even though Embid was ill, he scored 12 points, but you could see he was not in his usual form, he got an IV drip before the game.
All in all, it was a very important win for the Sixers, they go home with a tie and they play the next two matches at home.
Nicola Holder