Five takeaways from a strange Nuggets loss to the Portland Trail Blazers

The Denver Nuggets lost on Thursday night, but it wasn’t a bad loss. It certainly didn’t have that feeling, given how the Nuggets played through about 40 minutes of the game. Michael Porter Jr. was once again going off, while Jerami Grant had 22 points in the starting lineup and Nikola Jokic racked up 13 assists through three quarters.

Then, the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter happened, and Nuggets fans started asking some questions.

Here are my five takeaways from Denver’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers (apologies for being a little late):

Did the Nuggets lose intentionally or were they trying to rest Nikola Jokic?