The NBA playoff postseason picture was completed last Friday when the play-in tournament ended to determine each conference’s eighth and final teams. The Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks 123-114 for the Eastern Conference to advance to Round One. They will face the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers in Round One of the Eastern Conference playoffs. In the West, the Memphis Grizzles outlasted the Dallas Mavericks 120-106 to advance to Round One to face the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder.  

Round One tipped off last Saturday with three teams losing their home-court advantage in Game Two of the best-of-seven series. The three teams splitting their opening home games included the Los Angeles Lakers losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Denver Nuggets losing to the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Detroit Pistons losing to the New York Knicks.

Denver opened their series against the Clippers on Saturday with a 112-110 overtime win. They would fall to the Clippers at Ball Arena, 105-102, two days later. Several team members fell sick with a stomach bug and could not play in Game Two. Then, key starter Michael Porter, Jr. suffered a shoulder injury in Game Two.

“A lot of us were” sick, Nuggets coach David Adelman said on Wednesday. “And Jamal, when he showed up, I didn’t know if he was going to play. He was very sick. But he got hydrated, they put all the meds in him, whatever they did, I don’t know. But he was able to play 40-plus minutes feeling not so well. He looked better today. You know how it is, every day you feel a little bit better. Obviously, get a good night’s sleep tonight, have all day tomorrow, get ready to go tomorrow night,” for Game Three.

Porter had a great outing in the Nuggets’ loss in Game Two, scoring 15 points, with a team-best 15 rebounds, following a 3-point performance in Denver’s 112-110 overtime win in Game 1. He remains questionable for Game Three on the road against the Clippers.

“Yeah, the 15 rebounds is a great stat for a guy that was more more engaged,” Adelman said. “And that means he’s in the paint. He was hitting the offensive glass. He made an enormous 3 late. You know, that was a regret late (that) Michael wasn’t on the court.” Christian Braun and Nikola Jokic missed 3-pointers to tie in the final, chaotic seconds.

“So, yeah, I just thought he was much more engaged. He was in the paint a lot and a 6-10 guy like that really helps to have somebody on the glass where Nikola can be more aggressive to help with Kawhi (Leonard) and James (Harden) and Norman Powell attacking the basket.”

Replacing fired coach Mike Malone, Adelman won the last four regular-season games for the Nuggets. The Game Two loss against the Clippers was his first loss as the head coach. “This is about the process of figuring out how to win four games (in the playoffs),” Adelman said. It’s not about records and all that stuff. It’s just about the first to four. That’s all I think about.”

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