The Blazers Gutted Out A Home Win To Force A Game 7 Against The Nuggets

For the second time on Thursday night, a team picked up a win at home to force a Game 7 in their conference semifinal series. Hours after the Philadelphia 76ers blew out the Toronto Raptors at the Wells Fargo Center, the Portland Trail Blazers followed suit, picking up a 119-108 win over the Denver Nuggets at the Moda Center. Now, the two sides will square off on Sunday night in Denver with a spot in the Western Conference Finals on the line.

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, as they are wont to do, set the tone early on for the Nuggets. The high-scoring guard was electric, scoring 10 points and getting to the free throw line six times. Jokic, meanwhile, played as good of a frame as he can, scoring 10 points, ripping down five rebounds, and doling out four assists.

It also included him doing this, which is funny, because he is a gigantic human who should not be able to do this.

Portland was able to stay afloat, though. While Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum both had six points, Rodney Hood provided a spark off the bench. The veteran scorer had a team-high seven points in a hair over four minutes, a major factor in the Blazers only being down by eight after 12 minutes.

The good news for Portland was it ramped things up on both ends of the floor in the second frame. The aforementioned trio kept scoring, led by 15 from McCollum, while the Nugget offense was stifled by the Blazers defense. Heading into the locker room, Terry Stotts’ squad held a 58-54 lead and looked well on its way towards forcing a Game 7, especially if they kept getting major contributions off the bench from Hood, who had 14 at the break.

Neither side was able to create much separation in the third. Ties and lead changes were the norm, and any time one team was able to create a little bit of separation, the opposing bunch remained calm and came back. Portland eventually started to get themselves some breathing room, and You’ll Never Guess Who Came Up Big. (Ok, you will, it was Damian Lillard.)

The All-Star guard was magnificent in the third quarter, going for 17 points. It included some awfully deep triples, because Lillard can’t go for a huge quarter without letting it fly from way downtown.

It wasn’t quite enough to create enough separation to make things comfortable going into the fourth, though, with the Blazers only taking a seven-point lead into the game’s final 12 minutes. While Denver got it down to four points early on in the frame, Portland managed to keep them at arm’s length, seeing out a win despite some bad blood coming to the surface.

While Jokic (29 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists) was great, and Murray (24 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) had a solid night, the rest of the Nuggets weren’t able to quite keep up. On the other side, Lillard, McCollum, and Hood all rose to the occasion, going for 32, 30, and 25 points, respectively. We’ll see if they can replicate these performances on Sunday, and if they can, it’s very possible the Blazers will punch their tickets to the next round. If not, and if Jokic can play like the All-NBA center he is, don’t be surprised if Denver ends up moving on.