This one my friends, is the culmination of regrettable trades made by both teams, an obvious future rivalry, and may just be for all the marbles. Whichever team imposes their Will, should indeed put a bird on it, and make the playoffs in 2017.
As J-Roc (not-so-famously) lamented on Trailer Park Boys: "You can't not be feelin' this!"
Pre-Game Thoughts: It'd be pretty difficult to overstate the importance and intrigue of this game. This game has it all. Two teams battling it out for the final playoff spot, who just exchanged centers in a mid-season trade, that has helped both teams in the short term, (likely more-so for PDX in the long term since they basically got a future all star who plugged the exact hole they were hemorrhaging from AND a 1st rounder, for a player they weren't going to re-sign anyway, while Denver is likely to overpay for a backup Center), a trade that PDX would love to take back involving "The People's Champ" and a draft pick who would become promising guard Malik Beasley, for a rental; this ones got run-on sentences, mystery nicknames, dynamic taglines, hidden links to dark-web pornography a long history of one sided trades BEST TRADE IN NUGGETS HISTORY #2: June 7th, 1984 - Nuggets acquire Lafayette "Fat" Lever, Calvin Natt, Wayne Cooper and a first and second round draft pick from the Portland Trailblazers for Kiki Vandeweghe By Andrew Fienstien and we haven't even mentioned the star power of the Blazers small-school super-star back-court, or Big Honey! Channel your inner Tina Belcher and hold on to your butts ladies and gentlemen. This one is Yuuuuuge!
Here's a Novel idear: I'm going to start tagging every player on each team's active roster in this section (who is not already tagged in the TPM Area) so's I don't have to hassle with it whilst tracking TPM and writing analysis mid game. Not all nicknames are entirely catchy, but they should suffice. Sarite? Sarite!
Will "The People's Champion" Barton,
Juancho "No Room For A Nickname" Hernangomez,
Mike "The Human White Flag" Miller
Michael "Mr Imagination" Malone
Damian "He's Sooooo Goood! Please Something More Clever Than Dame. Might I Suggest Dam' Good?" Lillard,
CJ "Slap Some Specs & Suspenders on him & You've Gotta Admit, He Kinda Resembles Urkel" McCollum,
Allen "Wants To Rule The Land Of Earth" Crabbe,
Pat "...But I Can Jump" Connaughton,
Tim "Shwag-Dealing" Quarterman,
Evan "There's A Pixies Song Title That Would Be Perfect Here, That I Don't Want To Be Misconstrued As Racist, Involving Heaven" Turner,
Al-Farouq "The Chief" (Why mess with a good thing?) Aminu,
Maurice "Insert Nickname" Harkless,
Meyers "Gargantuan Bieber" Leonard,
Noah "Hands A' Plenty" Vonleh,
Festus "OG Member-Berry" Ezeli,
Update: Nothing to update tonight. Let's do dis!
Qtr1- Ally got a make-over/diagonal-trim, and looks ravishing this evening. It seems I'm not the only one bringing their A-game tonight. Big Honey wins the tip, PDX May as well give up now. Lots of Jameeroball early, just as Malone drew it up. Jokic and Nurkic are both off to hot starts, as expected. Gallo picks up his 2nd foul at the 6:30 mark. Harkless has 2 for PDX, and Denver is in the Bonus. It's all even at 20 after 6 minutes of play. Ill-Will with an Ill-Advised pass, for a TO. Plum-Dog gets a rousing ovation from the classy/savvy PDX fans; Nice to see, as Jurkic check out simultaneously. Apparently Barton is yesterday's news, as he checks in to the calm-cacophony of crickets. Chandler is the first Nugget in double figures. Big Honey with 9-2-2, on 3-5 shooting and 2-2 from the line & 1-2 from deep. Juka with 13-4-2 on 5-6 shooting and 3-3 from the line and Denver leads after one, 35-32.
Qtr2- Faried with two straight "Moses Malone" buckets. Barton gets his 2nd foul at the 8:30 mark. Ally is apparently attempting to make shoulder pads en vogue again, but somehow, it works for her. Faried already with 9 boards in 11 minutes! Murray is the 3rd Nugget (all perimeter players, to the surprise of no one vs this PDX team) with 2 fouls at the 7:45 mark. Nuggets are now playing Plumkic vs Juka & Vonleah (ukulele?). C.J. is the 2nd Blazer in double figures. Harkless nabs his 3rd, and must check out at the 6:30 mark. Barton is legit running the point right now, but it's too late in the season to include him in TPM. Sorry. He is the 2nd Nugget in double figures at the 5:30 mark.
Juka is getting the crowd into it and the Blazers take a 4 point lead, on a 10-0 run. "Dam'-Good", somehow misses 2 at the charity stripe. Vonleah picks up his 2nd foul, followed in short order by Jokic's 2nd. Jokic and Jameer are now both in double figures, making 4 Nuggets in total. Meanwhile, Lillard becomes the 3rd for PDX. What a ballgame! Jokic is eying another 3d with 10-5-5 on 4-6, 2-2 & 1-2 shooting. Meanwhile, PDX is utilizing Nurkic offensively in the appropriate manner, something we never managed to do (P&R), and he is humming to the tune of 21-8-2 on 9-11 & 3-3 shooting, as PDX leads at the half, 66-64.
Qtr3- Ah the 3rd qtr. Seemingly always the loss/victory determination point in Nuggets games. Gallo drains a 3 to retake the lead. Harris is now the 6th Nugget in double figures. The man without a nickname (I assume) picks up his 4th foul at the 9 minute mark. Juka has a 2d already. C.J. is absolutely torching Jameer right now, but Jameer drains a 3 to tie it at 75, at the 7:30 mark. Juka is hyper-focused tonight. A few PDX fans chant M-V-P sarcastically, as he drains 2 at the line. LOVE IT! Jameeroball is completely killing us at the moment. Juka gets 2 straight charging penalties, that weren't, both against Faried. Denver is refusing to drive, as most teams do against Juka. 4 straight missed 3's for Denver. Juka has a career high 29 already, at the 4 minute mark. This season feels to be slipping away on the Nuggets sadly, but a quick glance at the scoreboard reveals that it is still just a 5 point game with 3:45 to play in the 3rd. Murray may need to get hot, forcing PDX' guards to actually defend someone, if they are to have a chance at winning. The Blazers are in the bonus with 3 to play, up 7. Jokic has 13-5-7 on 5-8, 2-2 & 1-3 shooting. Nurkic has 29-14-2 on a scorching 11-13 & 7-7 shooting. Jameer inexplicably plays every minute of the 3rd qtr, entirely ineffectively, and Denver's playoff hopes rest in the balance down 10 after 3, 95-85.
Qtr 4- Murray FINALLY replaces Jameer to start the 4th. He comes in and drills a 3 to cut it to 9 after 1.5 minutes of play. Chandler follows it up with a 3 of his own and Denver has momentum. This unit is playing much better than the starters did in the 3rd, but Lillard and Juka are riding pine. C.J. now has 30. Murray contested him on his next shot, in what could have been the first such occurrence of the game, forcing a miss. C.J. is absolutely unconscious however, and comes back with a 30 foot 3 in Plumlee's face, stretching the lead to 11 with 7:30 to play. Jurkic check in at this time to likely play out the string, mano a mano. For reasons only "Mr Imagination" understands, Jameer replaces Murray as well. Juka nabs his 4th foul on a Gallo drive. Jameer with 5 straight points cuts it to 6, so what the fuck do I know? "The Chief" is the 4th Blazer in double digits. I'm trying not to overstate that the season rides on this game, but a Denver loss basically means a 2 game deficit and a tougher remaining schedule, with PDX owning the tiebreaker, and only 8 remaining games for Denver.
Denver's body language is highly defeated in appearance right now, as PDX extends the lead to 11 at the 4 minute mark. Jokic picks up his 4th at the 3:45 mark, sending Juka to the line again, where he FINALLY misses, 1-2. It's all perimeter now for Denver, and this one looks to be done. Gallo is 1-8 from three tonight, and I don't remember him ever attempting a drive in earnest. Jameer scores a season high 23 and is STILL a -1 TPM (appologies to the artist formerly known as MM22, but it happens to be true.) Jokic with 17-8-8 on 7-14, 2-2 & 1-6 shooting with 0 steals and 2 blocks. Nurkic gets a career high in scoring, with 33-15-2 on a ridiculous 12-15 & 9-11 shooting with 0 steals and 3 blocks, and Denver loses in a heart-breaker, 121-113.
Final Thoughts- END THE JANIGHTMERE! Free Mudiay! God we suck at tanking! I said it at the time, and it bears repeating. Who cares if Juka wanted out? Denver was not winning a championship this season either way, so at LEAST hold onto him until the off season rather than trading him to your biggest division rival, so that they can overtake you not just on the season, but in the near future, for pennies on the dollar. It was simply put, a HORRENDOUS trade.
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