After dealing with a pair of devastating family issues, Michael Porter has 19 points and 8 rebounds in the Nuggets’ playoff start.
DENVER (AP) – Michael Porter Jr. controlled his thoughts on the bench as best he could and used the basketball court as his safe place.
It wasn’t easy, he said, not to focus on his younger brother, Jontay, who was banned from the NBA in a gambling investigation last week. Or his other brother, Coban, who was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for a fatal drunken driving accident.
But the sixth-year pro nicknamed “MPJ” kept thinking about his Denver Nuggets teammates who have taken him under their wing and made sure he stays strong.
Porter had 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocks for the Nuggets in a 114-103 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night in Game 1 of their first-round series.
“Some bad and sad things happened to some of my brothers,” Porter said in the locker room afterward. “But I have 15, 16 other brothers in here. So I knew I had to be here for them, come here and do my job and try to prepare myself to do it at a high level.”
That level of focus impressed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who made four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points, all in the second half.
“For his mindset to be where it is, I applaud him,” Caldwell-Pope said. “As a brother, we’ll keep him straight.”
Porter missed practice Friday to attend the sentencing of younger brother Coban Porter, a former guard at the University of Denver, in a drunken-driving crash that killed a 42-year-old woman last year.
This came after another brother, former Toronto Raptors reserve Jontay Porter, 24, was banned for life from the NBA for betting on basketball and revealing insider information to other players.
And as much as Michael Porter Jr. likes to say basketball helped him escape, it was still tough.
“We’re human, so we carry our emotions and things that happen off the field onto the field,” Porter said. “But I’m mentally tough.”
He’s been through quite a few comebacks since college and basically missed two NBA seasons before playing in all but one game this season.
“I’ve been through a lot throughout my career,” Porter said. “It was just another one of those things I had to try to play.”
To put in that kind of performance earned praise from Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
“That’s why basketball is such a beautiful game, you don’t think about anything but what’s happening on the floor,” said Jokic, who had 32 points and 12 boards. “Before and after, of course, things hit you. But I think we all reached out to him and of course family is the first thing. But we are also a kind of family. So hopefully he’ll find peace and be in a good place, mentally.”
Porter appreciated the support. He also appreciated the gift he left on the chair in front of his locker (he thinks it might have been Caldwell-Pope or Jamal Murray). It was a poster with a quote: “I will do today what others won’t do, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.”
“I’ve got to go close it at home,” said Porter, who played more than 37 minutes and had no turnovers. “Every single one of them (teammates) messaged me individually and just told me they got me back.
“If I need anything, they’ve got me.”