Damian
Lillard caught fire on Tuesday night, scoring a
franchise-playoff-record 55 points in the Portland Trail Blazers'
147-140 win over the Denver Nuggets. Denver now leads the
first-round series 3-2.
Lillard
forced two overtime periods, finishing with 55 points, 12 threes,
10 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 turnover while shooting
70.8% from the field, 70.6% from three-point range and 90% from the
free-throw line.
Lillard's 12
threes set an all-time playoff record for made triples, and he also
becomes the first player in NBA history to score 55 points in fewer
than 25 field-goal attempts, as noted by our Tommy Beer.
In the two
overtime periods, Lillard scored 17 points on eight field goal
attempts, while the rest of the Blazers combined for two points on
12 attempts. Nikola Jokic finished with 38 points, 11 rebounds, 9
assists and 4 blocks. Here is the game recap from The Associated
Press:
***
DENVER (AP) —
Michael Porter Jr.’s 3-pointer with 1:33 left in the second
overtime helped the Denver Nuggets squelch an epic comeback by the
Portland Trail Blazers with a 147-140 win Tuesday night in Game 5
of the playoff series.
The Nuggets won
despite Damian Lillard’s franchise playoff record 55 points and NBA
playoff record 12 3-pointers, including long distance shots that
forced overtime and the second OT. He eclipsed the mark of 11 set
by Golden State’s Klay Thompson at Oklahoma City on May 28,
2016.
Lillard scored
17 of Portland’s 19 points in the two overtimes, but he didn’t
score again after his 12th 3-pointer in 17 attempts put the Blazers
ahead 140-138 with 3:47 left.
And his
teammates didn’t score again, either.
Nikola Jokic,
who scored 38 points and came one assist shy of a triple-double,
tied it at 140 with a layup and Porter broke the tie with a 3 from
the left corner with 1:33 left.
The Blazers
still were within three points until a pair of costly mistakes sent
them back to Portland for Game 6 on Thursday night trailing the
Nuggets 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
First, Robert
Covington missed a dunk with 41 seconds left and then CJ McCollum
stepped out of bounds with 9.1 seconds left and Lillard setting up
for another 3.
Monte Morris,
who scored 28 points off the bench, hit a pair of free throws with
8.8 seconds to seal it, and Shaq Harrison added two free throws
with 3.8 seconds remaining.
Lillard broke
his own franchise scoring record, a 50-point outburst against
Oklahoma City on April 23, 2019.
Lillard’s
3-pointer with three seconds left in regulation tied it at 121. His
3 with 6.4 seconds left in the first overtime tied it at 135 and
that capped Portland’s comeback from a quick nine-point deficit in
the extra period after Denver hit a trio of 3s.
The Nuggets
made three quick 3-pointers in the first overtime, two by Morris
and another by Austin Rivers, to surge ahead 132-123. Portland
missed its first five long balls in the extra period before Lillard
sank three in the final minute to force a second overtime.
By holding on,
Denver improved to 187-1 in games since April 2, 2008, in which
they led at any point by 22 or more, including the postseason.
The game looked
like a blowout for Denver when the Nuggets went up 54-32 on Paul
Millsap’s layup with 7:52 left in the second quarter.
Denver was
still ahead 59-39 with 51/2 minutes left in the second quarter only
to watch the Blazers use a 23-6 run to pull to 65-62 at
halftime.
McCollum’s
buzzer-beating 11-foot jumper made it a one-possession game at the
break. During Portland’s big run, the Nuggets went without a basket
for more than four minutes as the biggest crowd of the season —
10,500 — went from exuberant to edgy.
Portland took
its first lead at 83-82 on Lillard’s free throw after Jokic was
whistled for a technical for arguing for a call.
MORE
PORTER
Michael Porter
Jr.’s shots went down from 21 to 13 to 11 to three in Games 1-4,
prompting the Nuggets forward to declare: “I can’t let myself be as
small of a factor as I was the last couple of games.” In Game 5, he
put up 13 shots and scored 26 points. He also pulled down a dozen
boards.
ORDER
ON THE COURT
Nuggets coach
Michael Malone had a strong reaction to the spate of bad fan
behavior across the NBA, saying it “tarnishes the game.”
“People are
acting the fool. That’s my reaction. And it’s almost like it’s a
copycat thing now: who can one-up the other person?” Malone said.
”... I think some people are coming out of this COVID pandemic and
maybe they just are trying to express themselves. But that’s not
the way to do it. Let the players play the game, enjoy the game and
keep your (rear) in the seat, keep your water bottles in your lap
and please don’t spit or use any racist language to any player.
“Not just our
players but any player. That tarnishes the game. And the playoffs
are the best time of the year for NBA basketball. Let’s get back to
spotlighting the players that we have across the league.”
Portland coach
Terry Stotts called it “kind of a disturbing or disappointing
trend. On second thought, “hopefully, it’s not a trend,” Stotts
said. “Hopefully it’s just isolated incidents.”
TIP-INS:
Trail Blazers:
Portland missed its first eight shots — the first four were from
long range — and the Blazers’ first basket came on a goaltending
call on Porter, giving Norman Powell the basket at the 6:55 mark.
... Lillard bounced back from his 10-point performance on 1-of-10
shooting in Game 4 to hit 17 of 24 shots, including 12 of 17 from
long range and 9 of 10 from the stripe.
Nuggets:
Denver’s first basket of the second half came at the 9:51 mark on
Aaron Gordon’s dunk. ... The Nuggets were 5-for-7 from 3-point
range in the first quarter when they took 38-25 lead. ... In a
three-second sequence in the second quarter, Jokic blocked
consecutive shots by Norman Powell and Nurkic. ... The Nuggets went
5 for 7 on 3s in the extra periods to Portland’s 4 of 12.
___
More AP
NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports