SUMMARY
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Damian Lillard finished with 34 points and 13 assists, CJ McCollum scored 21 points, and the visiting Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets, 123-109, in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series on Saturday night, May 22 (Sunday, May 23, Manila time).
Jusuf Nurkic had 16 points and 12 rebounds, Carmelo Anthony scored 18 points, Anfernee Simons had 14 and Norman Powell scored 10 for the sixth-seeded Trail Blazers.
Game 2 is Monday night, also in Denver.
Nikola Jokic had 34 points and 16 rebounds, Michael Porter Jr. finished with 25 points and 9 rebounds to lead the Nuggets.
Aaron Gordon tallied 16 points 8 eight boards, and Monte Morris added 10 points off the bench for third-seeded Denver.
The Nuggets led by three at intermission and increased it to nine with 8:34 left in the third quarter, but Portland dominated the rest of the period.
An 11-2 run tied the game at 73, and a three-point play by Powell gave the Trail Blazers a 76-75 lead. They went up 81-78 on McCollum’s three-pointer.
Jokic got Denver back within one with a layup, but Lillard scored 8 of his 15 third-quarter points in the final 1:26 to give Portland a 96-86 lead heading into the fourth.
The Trail Blazers hit two three-pointers early in the fourth to go ahead 102-90, prompting the Nuggets to call a timeout. They tightened up after that and scored eight straight to get within four points with 8:14 remaining.
Simons and Markus Howard traded three-pointers, and Jokic hit a turnaround jumper to make it 107-103, but Portland responded again.
Anthony converted a three-point play, Lillard hit another from behind the arc and Nurkic’s three-point play made it 116-103.
Jokic missed on the other end and Nurkic scored off of an offensive rebound to make it 118-103, and the Trail Blazers closed it out.
Anthony heated up in the first quarter, scoring 12 points in five minutes to give Portland a five-point lead. Denver rallied late in the second quarter with a 15-4 run to go ahead 57-51 and led 61-58 at halftime. – Rappler.com
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