If they're going to continue with Aaron Gordon on Dame, I'd like to see some more off ball actions to make Gordon have to chase rather than be disruptive at the point of attack.
Obviously have to take care of the ball better and communication is going to be big and transition defensively with all the cross matching that'll be on the floor.
Nurk is also going to have to make Jokic
work more defensively. I know we don't really use them much this way, but I'd like to see him used more as rim runner off misses. Opportunity for potential mismatches and also getting Jokic in foul trouble. I do agree that he's better used as a drag screener in transition, but I think we need to see this sprinkled in from time to time.
Got to guard the ball way better. It's been an issue all year and Denver let us off the hook game 1 (23 drives versus 40 in game 2). Thought we showed a little bit more help on Jokic in game 2 so that led to some of that, but these are short closeouts a lot of the time so there's really no excuse to give up the amount of penetration we did.
Liked the start Powell had on Michael Porter in game two. I thought he was really physical at the point of the screen off the ball and blew up some of their actions. Got to recognize their early rotations defensively and find him weakside. Like we've seen too many times before, when Denver ratcheted up the pressure on the ball, we often tried to beat it with the dribble rather than the pass. The opportunities are there to get to threes and drive kick going if the ball changes sides.
Pump to see what the atmosphere is going to be like tonight. Wish I could be there.
Go Blazers
