Why Anfernee Simons' 'Big Boy' Game 1 Looms So Large For Blazers
Anfernee Simons seemed a bit confused.
After inbounding to Carmelo Anthony at the top of the floor, he set an off-ball screen for Norman Powell with the ostensible goal of forcing a switch from the Denver Nuggets. Michael Porter Jr. fought under Simons' pick and Powell was slow to attack on his catch from Anthony, though, leaving the Trail Blazers without the advantage they hoped to gain.
The shot clock winding down as Powell sized up Porter, Anthony motioned for Simons to rise from the corner and re-screen for Powell on the ball. Initially hesitant, Simons tip-toed toward his teammate only to catch a flaming bag from Powell with less than five seconds to shoot.
So much for indecision. Simons squared up, jabbed right from triple threat then let fly on a no-dribble, pull-up wing three in the face of 5-foot-10 Markus Howard.
Buckets.
Simons' third triple extended Portland's lead to 11 early in the fourth quarter.
His fourth and final three came a few minutes later, this one resulting from ball movement that the 22-year-old later credited as the driving force behind his standout performance in the Blazers' 123-109 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.
"When I was out there I was just comfortable," Simons said. "I was getting a lot of easy shots because they were showing so much attention to Dame and C.J. All I had to do was relax and knock down shots, and play off the pass."
The box score indicates Simons was assisted on all five of his baskets en route to 14 points – nearly half his total amount of career playoff points coming into Saturday's game – on just six shots. That undersells the difficulty of his three above, as well as an off-dribble two late in the third quarter after Denver sent multiple defenders at Damian Lillard, affording Simons the opportunity to attack an overzealous close-out and pull up on a dime.
Whether statisticians give out assists or not, it's those advantage situations where Simons and his teammates are primed to thrive against the Nuggets' aggressive defensive scheme.
Portland doled out 29 assists in Game 1, its second-most in a playoff game during the Damian Lillard era.
"I think when we've been playing our best basketball, the ball's been moving around," Lillard, whose 13 assists were playoff career-high, said after the game. "We've been trusting each other, hitting the roller, hitting the weak side, swinging it, making the extra pass. We've been making the extra pass a lot, and it's leading to higher quality shots."
It bears stressing that Denver only has so many options defensively. Nikola Jokic's issues moving laterally and defending at the rim force the Nuggets into a scheme that relies on ball pressure and back-line rotations, inevitably leading to creases in the defense that can be exploited by the pass.
The ball always moves faster than the defense. And for a team with as many knockdown shooters as Portland, fully embracing the extra pass is a surefire way to sustainably create good looks.
Talking with media after the game, Terry Stotts described the sequence below – which begins with Lillard "shorting" the pick-and-roll by passing to Carmelo Anthony before 'Melo quickly finds Enes Kanter diving to the rim – as "beautiful."
Simons shot a scorching 51.6 percent on catch-and-shoot threes during the regular season, per NBA.com/stats, third in the league behind veteran sharpshooters Tony Snell and Joe Harris.
Connecting on open jumpers isn't exactly surprising for a shooter of Simons' caliber. But for a young player on the fringes of Portland's rotation for the majority of 2020-21, it's still extremely encouraging that Simons took those shots with such confidence in the first place – especially because facing the Nuggets' defense means more of them are bound to come.
"He's one of the most talented guys on our roster," Lillard said of Simons. "He can put the ball on the floor and beat people, he's a knockdown shooter. He's what we need on the perimeter. And tonight he was a big boy. He stepped and played a major role in us winning this game."
If Portland advances to the second round, expect a confident, comfortable Simons to have continued playing that major role in his team's success against Denver.