Tim Hardaway Jr. seemed relieved Wednesday that the Dallas Mavericks took advantage of an incredible performance from Luka Doncic in a Game 5 win over the Los.
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In the post-game presser after the loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone had some harsh criticism for his players. Royce Young of ESPN details what Malone had to say.
“Our starters were awful,” he said. “I thought we had some guys that were tentative, that looked a little scared, who played soft . we’re going to have to be a lot better going home.”
Malone didn’t stop there.
“The urgency has to be there. Maybe this will be a wake-up call for our starting group just to play harder,” Malone said. “Good things happen when we play hard, and we didn’t play anywhere close to hard enough tonight.”
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In the first half of Game 2, few records looked out of reach for Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard. Everything from Michael Jordan’s single-game postseason scoring record (63) to Klay Thompson’s historic 3-point binge (11 triples) appeared attainable. That is, until the Nuggets opened the second half with a new wrinkle.
In the second half, forward Aaron Gordon was tasked with picking up Lillard on the defensive end. Lillard finished with 42 points, but only 10 came after halftime. In a piece from ESPN’s Royce Young, the Blazers guard explained how Portland planned to respond to the shift.