Michael Porter Jr Reacts To Nuggets Game 2 vs Lakers | May 18, 2023

I had 23 in the fourth quarter. He had struggled the prior three quarters. I think only just five of 17 leading into the fourth quarter What did you see from him? How locked in was he? Yeah He's had a few games like that this year where he struggles in the first half and then Just goes crazy in the second half and I think that uh, that just takes a maturity as a player And I feel like all the best players in the league do that you know I mean because It only takes a couple shots going in to get a rhythm and he knows we need him to make shots down the stretch to To win games so I was proud of him for sticking with it Mike after missing or after Turning down a three and driving it looked like your teammates were telling you to just shoot the ball Then you hit that three in the corner that big shot when your teammates say that stuff to you Do you register it? Does it do you are you interested in that feedback? Yeah. No, I'm definitely interested in it Like they want me to shoot it. I'll shoot it I mean, I felt like they closed out pretty well and it was gonna be a contested shot At the end of the day I could shoot over most people so when they tell me just catch and shoot it That definitely gave me confidence to just shoot those some of those shots down the stretch Mike I think you're at just 19 minutes played entering the fourth you come back in to start the quarter What's just kind of your mentality? What what do you think in heading into the fourth one? You know, you got a lot in the tank there. Yeah, I think same thing the the most of our team has is just a Resilience, you know, I mean it might not go our way the first half for certain quarters But we're all gonna be needed down the stretch one one person can't beat this team. They're too good. So I just had to You know refocus and hit a couple big ones down the stretch Michael when you'd know that the game is going to be more of a Defensive minded game versus an offensive minded game like it was in game one How does that change your approach or does it change your approach at all? Just going from game to game in a series like this, you know, we talked about it before the game I think the first game against Phoenix. It was a high-scoring game. And then the second game I think it was like 97 to 87 something like that. So we talked about that And before the game we knew like game the game in the playoffs. It can be completely different So we knew that and then you just got to adjust to the feel of the game and I was going Because of the NBA bubble this team as this core hasn't been on the road in the conference finals So what do you kind of expect out of that atmosphere? What's kind of be the message? Yeah It's definitely gonna be hostile there, you know, they they still feel like they're in this series obviously It's the first of four. It's not the first of two, so they're not gonna just roll over and now they're back in LA So they're looking to get two wins back home So we just we're gonna look back on that Phoenix series, you know when they tied it up at a in Phoenix And we're gonna try to not let that happen in LA But it's gonna take a lot of focus and our defense is gonna have to carry over into LA for sure Michael are you surprised that some people around the country claim? They're just discovering the nuggets for the first time including yokich. And I guess all you guys I Mean, I think that's probably how it is the most small market teams And then this stage is just so different, you know, I mean, this is a huge stage A lot of people are probably watching these games that don't normally watch NBA So we don't really let that get to us I mean we like I said before we got a lot of dudes who aren't really big into the social media thing or the you Know feeding into that which I think that place our advantage being the type of small market team that we are So I don't think we mind that at all No, no, I don't really care We always talk about the way Nicola is offensively but tonight I know it takes all five to defend a guy like Anthony Davis, but to hold him to 415 from the field What can you say about Jokers defensive impact? Yeah, he got the defensive player the game chain and he deserves it You know ad is one of the hardest dudes to stop and and yoke was playing in one-on-one a lot of the game So it was a huge huge effort from him You know if ad had a game like he had last game we wouldn't have won that game So Nicola definitely stepped up on that in Sorry Nick that defensive possession with ad at the end Did you were you able to strip that or did he could you take me through that possession? Yeah, I just he kind of had it on a fast break and had me in a one-on-one situation on the break So I just had to wall up and not let him get anything easy, but also not foul him And now I think he tried to pass it out or something. I don't think I stripped it He might have just lost it, but I was definitely was a big play for us