Basket Ball / Sports

Nuggets pick out Trail Blazers in second half to take Game 6 126-115

Nikola Jokic tallied 36 points and Michael Porter Jr. added 26 points, all in the first half, as the Denver Nuggets closed out the Portland Trail Blazers 126-115 in Game 6 to win the series 4-2. Damian Lillard led Portland with 28 points, but struggled from the field. CJ McCollum added 21 points for the Trail Blazers.

Porter Jr. started the game 5-5 from behind the arc to give the Nuggets an early advantage, but Portland found its rhythm to eventually get a 33-29 lead after one.

The Trail Blazers then went on a 16-6 run to open up a 63-53 lead in the second quarter. Portland took a 68-61 lead into halftime and went on a run early in the third quarter to open up a 93-79 advantage, but from there it was all Denver.

Jokic scored 20 points in the third quarter as Denver closed the frame on a 19-8 tear, trailing by three entering the final period. The Nuggets then went on a 21-7 run to open the fourth and never looked like letting up.

Lillard set a playoff record for 3-pointers made in a series, but will face speculation about his future with the franchise after his fifth first-round exit. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic could also be on the way out if the Trail Blazers look to start from scratch again. The Nuggets will face the Suns series in the second round.…

Basket Ball / Sports

Blazers lose in Double OT thriller

Needing a win, the Portland Trail Blazers came out with their pants full of soup in Game 5 of their series against the Denver Nuggets. With defense as porous as a broken screen door and offense as dry as the Sahara, the Blazers dug themselves a 20-point deficit by the second period. Denver’s mission to capture advantage in the series seemed secure.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the rout. Portland ate away at the increasingly-complacent Nuggets, then Damian Lillard went nuclear, posting an amazing performance culminating in 17 straight points over two overtimes…a feat impossible to describe.

When the smoke cleared, Lillard had the best performance in Blazers playoffs history with 55 points on 17-24 shooting, an NBA record 12-17 from distance, with 10 assists. But Lillard’s teammates came up woefully short, missing rotations and easy scoring plays in the double-OT thriller, leaving the Blazers down 147-140 in the game, 2-3 in the best-of-seven series.

First Quarter

The Blazers opened the game with a new wrinkle: stiff defense! They made the Nuggets waste dribbles and passes. Denver tried to run the offense through Aaron Gordon but he couldn’t deliver. Portland forced him to go away from the basket instead of towards it once he received the ball. Unfortunately the Blazers were ice cold on offense, missing easy shots and hard. Jusuf Nurkic went scoreless on three fairly makeable conversions. CJ McCollum drifted on his jumpers. As the Blazers bricked their first 8 shots, the Nuggets opened up a 10-0 lead.

The Blazers finally got their first point at the 7:53 mark on a free throw after an Illegal Defense call on Denver. Their second score came on a goaltend of a Norman Powell layup. They didn’t make a real bucket until the clock read 6:25, when Robert Covington got loose in the lane. By that time Denver was like butter on a roll. Nikola Jokic, Facu Campazzo, Michael Porter, Jr., everybody was scoring. The Nuggets ended up hitting 7 threes in the period, Portland only …