Portland is terrible defensively… and we already knew that

All season long, the narrative for Portland has been that they have one of the NBA’s worst defenses and while they did step things up near the end of the season on defense, they are back to the same team they were earlier in the year. They simply play no defense and try to beat opposing teams with their high scoring offense. 

For teams like the Nets, who have a plethora of talent and scoring weapons, this philosophy works, but for Portland, who seems to only get key scoring from Lillard and McCollum, they need to lock in defensively and be better. 

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Allowing 39 points in the first-quarter of a playoff game is inexcusable for the Trail Blazers and if they continue to allow Denver to score with ease, they are going to wind up losing this series in 5-6 games. 

The funny thing about Portland too is that they have the pieces on their team to actually be quite decent defensively. Robert Covington has always been known for his “3-and-D” presence on the floor, Norman Powell is a solid two-way talent on the wing and Jusef Nurkic has proven that he is a tough interior presence, so why is this team so bad defensively? 

Well, they simply do not give the same effort on defense as they do on offense and it has shown in this series. There is too much standing around on defense and nobody seems to be very eager or active to attack the Nuggets, which is why Denver is getting 30+ point performances from Jokic and knocking down three-point shots in volume. 

Denver knocked down a total of 20 three-point shots in their Game 3 victory and if they continue to shoot at a high percentage from the perimeter, they will win this series. Portland needs to be better defensively and until they realize that, they will never be a true contender in the Western Conference.