“Jamal’s a leader of this team whether he is playing or not,” Malone said. Jamal Murray returned from L.A., where he’s been rehabbing from his ACL surgery, to cheer on his Nuggets teammates. “They just weren't falling tonight,” he said. Porter shot 44.5% from 3-point range this season. Previously, crowds at Ball Arena were capped at 4,050 during COVID-19 restrictions. Nuggets: The crowd of 7,732 was the largest of the season.
#BLAZERS VS DENVER FREE#
Portland outshot Denver 19-8 from the foul line and hit 18 free throws to Denver's four. Anthony made four of his first five 3-point attempts. Trail Blazers: The teams hadn’t played in six days, since Portland’s 132-116 home win over Denver on May 16 allowed the Blazers to avoid the play-ins. “We’ve had a whole week to prepare for this and get ready for Game 1. “For the last week, this is all I’ve been thinking about,” Lillard said. It was Lillard who took over after halftime, scoring 15 points in the third quarter when he sparked a 32-13 run by the Blazers that turned a nine-point deficit into a 96-86 lead. “This will always be a special place for me regardless of the boos,” Anthony said. “He gave us the boost that we needed,” Stotts said. chipped in 25 points for Denver but was just 1-for-10 from long range, and Aaron Gordon added 16 points.Īnthony provided an early spark for Portland with 12 points in the first quarter. "Great time to make it happen,” Anthony said. “Too many breakdowns.”ĬJ McCollum added 21 points and Anthony scored 18 in his first playoff game against the team that drafted him 18 years ago.Īnthony, who forced his way out of Denver a decade ago, learned in the locker room afterward that this marked his first win as a visitor at Ball Arena, which used to be called the Pepsi Center. “I talked about it quite a lot during the week, can we guard the 3-point line?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “To be honest, I think we could’ve shot the ball even better," Portland coach Terry Stotts said. Subs Carmelo Anthony and Anfernee Simons added four each as the Blazers outscored Denver by 24 points from beyond the arc. The Blazers hit 19 of 40 shots from beyond the arc, and Lillard, sporting silver sneakers that were a fitting choice for his sterling performance, had five of them. “They made me work for it on every possession.”
“I couldn't get the other guys involved,” Jokic lamented. Jokic matched Lillard's scoring output, but wasn't nearly the same facilitator. “You know he’s going to do what he does but you got to try to take something away.” “A guy as good as he is, an MVP candidate - the MVP in my opinion - you know that he’s going to play well,” Lillard added. “We know when they’re at their best, he’s setting the table, he’s dominating the game as a playmaker and he’s scoring and he’s kind of having his way. “It was huge,” Lillard said after Portland's 123-109 victory. That's something no opponent had done all year against the Nuggets superstar center who averaged a career-best 8.3 assists this season. It was holding NBA MVP front-runner Nikola Jokic to a single assist. NBA, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail BlazersĭENVER - What had Damian Lillard so excited wasn't his 34 points or 13 assists or how he led Portland's 3-point barrage that sparked the Trail Blazers' win over the undermanned Denver Nuggets in their playoff opener Saturday night. Lillard leads 3-point barrage, Blazers beat Nuggets 123-109
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