NBA Playoffs: Blazers Up 2-1 After 4OT Thriller
It was a freaky Friday night in the NBA playoffs indeed. First, the “Greek Freak,” Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to a 123-116 win over the Boston Celtics, helping his team take a 2-1 advantage in their Eastern Conference semifinals series. That was earlier in the evening. What was to follow, blew that game out of the water.
The second game on tap was Game 3 between the Denver Nuggets and the Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams went at it like it was for the NBA championship, taking the game to four overtime periods before the Blazers finally sealed the deal, 137-140.
As expected, this game was about big shot after big shot, forcing the game to more and more minutes. Without a doubt, at least nine players involved set new NBA playoff career-highs in multiple categories. The minutes played alone were staggering. Denver’s Nikola Jokic was an iron man, logging a game-high 65 minutes. He played his heart out, finishing the game with massive triple-double highlighted by 33 point, 18 rebounds, 14 assists and four 3-pointers. Maybe, it was too much. And it was, as Nuggets head coach Mike Malone apologized to him in the locker room for playing him too much. His teammate Will Barton scored zero points in the first half of the game but woke up to finish with 22 points, nine rebounds, two steals and three blocks between the second half and the overtime periods. Jamal Murray was Nuggets’ leading scorer with 34 points on 14-of-32 shooting, nine rebounds, and five assists.
Damian Lillard was relatively quiet in this game for the Blazers, with 28 points, six rebounds, eight assists in 58 minutes. Enes Kanter gutted out some shoulder pain and came at Nikola Jokic on the offensive end to finish with 18 points and 15 rebounds of his own. The Turkish big man has really stepped his game in the playoffs with starting center Jusuf Nurkic out for the season with a compound leg fracture. In the end, Rodney Hood sank a go-ahead 3-pointer to lift the Blazers in the fourth overtime. The Nuggets had a the last possession, but a steal by CJ McCollum off Paul Millsap, made sure that the game would not see a fifth overtime. McCollum, not only came up huge with the heads-up defensive play, he also dropped a fresh NBA playoff career-high with 41 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four 3-pointers and four steals.
Both teams head to Portland for Game 4 on Sunday.