Blazers beat Nuggets for upper hand in playoff race

LOS ANGELES, USA – C.J. McCollum scored 39 points and Jusuf Nurkic scored a career-high 33 as the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets 122-113 on Tuesday, March 28 (Wednesday in Manila) in a battle of teams scrambling for a playoff spot.

Damian Lillard added 19 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who moved one game ahead of the Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference.

Portland also claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of winning 3 of the teams’ 4 regular-season games.

Nurkic, acquired in a trade with Denver on February 13, made 12 of his 15 shots form the field and nine of 11 free throw attempts. He also pulled down 16 rebounds in a dominant performance against his former team.

He had surpassed his previous career-high of 20 points before the end of the third quarter, his 21 first-half points helping the Blazers take a 66-64 lead into halftime.

They extended the lead to 83-76 midway through the third and were up 95-85 going into the final period.

Jameer Nelson scored 23 points for the Nuggets, who got 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists from Nikola Jokic.

Denver pulled within 109-103 with 5:05 to play, but Portland reserve forward Al-Farouq Aminu responded with 5 straight points and the Nuggets couldn’t get the gap below 7 points from there. – Rappler.com