Paul “Thirty Million Dollars for Twelve Points Per Game” Millsap continues to prove his worth in these playoffs, which really upsets me because he is supposed to be the guy whose contract and redundant skillset is preventing the Nuggets from reaching their full potential. In this one, he scored nineteen points in the first half, and he looked AGGRESSIVE while doing it. He wasn’t just standing around taking the offense that came to him. He took the offense for himself and did things with it.
Thanks to Millsap’s big first half, his services were hardly needed in the second half, and the only reason the entire final two quarters weren’t total garbage time is because Damian Lillard is always a threat to score twenty quick points when you’re not expecting it. Garbage time can turn into Dame Time in a hurry, which meant that the Nuggets had to play real lineups for at least most of the third quarter.
So Millsap finished with 24 points, which is the most he’s scored so far in the playoffs. It’s also his third-highest point total this season. A guy getting paid thirty million dollars might be expected to be more of a scorer than that, but Millsap’s value lies in places other than his scoring. Or so I’m told. Honestly, I’m still of the opinion that if you played Trey Lyles all of Millsap’s minutes this season, the Nuggets would have won sixty games and Nikola Jokic would have averaged a triple-double.