Michael Porter Jr. ruffled some feathers on Wednesday evening following Denver’s 96-85 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference Semifinals. The Nuggets’ offense was, as you can tell by the final score, not good, and as a result, the team is facing its second-consecutive 3-1 series deficit this postseason. Unlike last round, the Clippers are a much taller mountain to scale than the Utah Jazz, and it’s hard to see a path that involves Denver winning three in a row.
Porter, out of an apparent sense of frustration with how things went on Wednesday, called out head coach Michael Malone’s play calling in his postgame press conference. He took two shots in the second half after scoring 15 points in the first, and told the media that it wasn’t because of anything L.A. was doing.
Michael Porter Jr. on why he did not get shots in the second half:"That's really up to the play call and the coaches. We kept going to Jokic and Jamal. They are amazing players but we need to find ways to get others involved."
— Duvalier Johnson (@DuvalierJohnson) September 10, 2020
Malone, when asked, disagreed with this assessment.
Asked Michael Malone why MPJ only was able to get two shots off in the second half after he had 15 points in the first. He pretty much said the Clippers keyed in on him more, were physical and that the ball didn't find him within Denver's offense.
— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) September 10, 2020
Anyone publicly going after a coach like this is eyebrow-raising, particularly when it’s a young player whose gripe seems to be “the offense was too centered around Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.” His frustration is understandable, but there are plenty of ways to handle said frustration that is not this.
In the aftermath, plenty of individuals opined on how Porter aired this dirty laundry. One such person was Damian Lillard, who was not a fan of Porter’s tactics.
Smdh … https://t.co/uNwDxmJgQ2
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 10, 2020
Lillard is no stranger to commenting on what he sees in the world of basketball, and while there could have been some ambiguity about what he did not like here — perhaps he agreed with Porter and was shaking his damn head at the Nuggets’ coaching staff — he clarified in his following tweets that he believed the youngster was in the wrong here.
Yes he is wrong. If you know you know and ima leave it at that https://t.co/5Ynr2GXQlP
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 10, 2020
Yes I can. Cuz clearly y’all mfs think on a selfish level to think this is coo . https://t.co/gyJ2HkfPfg
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 10, 2020
Porter said that he’s going to speak with his coaches about all of this, so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on what his role is during a must-win Game 5 on Friday. Regardless, it’s not hard to guess what Lillard hopes they tell him as they discuss how he’ll be used for the remainder of this playoff run.
