It was as perfect an encapsulation of Nuggets playoff ball as anything else, the exact look Denver hoped to exploit popping up all of 50 seconds into Saturday’s clash with Clippers. Nikola Jokic screened and Jamal Murray wheeled, and Jokic suddenly found himself on an island against Los Angeles’s switching 6-foot-3 Kris Dunn. Help came from the corner, and Jokic felt it, zipping a pass to a home-free Michael Porter Jr.
The Nuggets sharpshooter drilled a three, and Denver had its first points of Game 1.
They were also Porter Jr.’s last points of Game 1.
For a week, interim head coach David Adelman has urged his players — via media availability — to let it fly with confidence and give Jokic the space to operate against physical Clippers defenders. This has been Porter’s job for years, and he’s being paid $179 million over five years to do so. For long stretches of regulation Saturday afternoon, though, the 6-foot-10 forward went invisible. Adelman pulled him with eight minutes left in regulation and he did not return in the Nuggets’ 112-110 overtime win.
“I’m going to say it again, like I’ve said last week — if Mike comes out, and he plays, and he’s engaged defensively, he’s knocking down shots — Michael will be out there,” Adelman said postgame, “just like everybody else in that locker room.”
More stark than Porter’s dearth of scoring, even, was his sheer lack of offensive involvement. He took just four shots, finishing 1 of 4. He attempted just two 3s, finishing 1 of 2. Denver didn’t find much open space from beyond the arc until deeper into the fourth quarter and overtime, making just nine threes on the afternoon. Porter has added more layers to his game in 2024-25 as a slasher and cutter, though he simply wasn’t very active in working the soft spots behind the Clippers’ defense.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic affirmed postgame that he’d like to see Porter Jr. be more aggressive in subsequent matchups, but added he felt teams were “preparing” for him.
“It’s really hard,” Jokic continued, “when someone is preparing for you. We definitely can find him a couple more looks or this and that, but I think, like, if that happens, like, you need to sacrifice. I think that the goal is to win a game. It’s not about minutes, and about shots. I think you need to support your team.
“Probably, like I said, next game can be a different game, and … different players can play.”
Porter’s usage will be a key touchpoint of the series to follow. Adelman’s made it abundantly clear he has little regard for any factors in closing lineups beyond the five “playing the best at that time,” as he put it postgame. On Saturday afternoon, that was the polarizing Russell Westbrook, who shot just 5 of 17 but put Denver over the top with a flurry of late-game shot-making and defensive activity.
After bringing Westbrook in for Porter with three minutes left in the second quarter and the Nuggets down 51-40, Denver immediately burst to a quick 7-0 run to pull back within striking distance. Adelman considered bringing Porter back before the end of the half, he said postgame. But he couldn’t “stunt runs,” Adelman said. Even as Porter’s shooting could’ve given the Nuggets a lift late in regulation or in overtime, he would’ve been long cold from sitting for extended stretches.
“There’s two ways to look at that,” Adelman said postgame, on not subbing Porter Jr. back in for the closing minutes. “You can say, well, I chose not to play Michael. Or, you can say — should I put Michael in a really unfair situation? Should I do that to him? I don’t think so.”
There is a third way to look at that, too: The Nuggets simply played better Saturday when Porter was off the floor. The forward tied for a team-worst -8 plus-minus in his 26 minutes. And as Denver successfully emerged from Game 1 by mucking up the Clippers’ offensive attack, Porter may need to earn his minutes in other areas if Los Angeles continues to cut off his water.
“I think the five guys that finished did their job,” Adelman said postgame, “and we won this game defensively.”