Nuggets center Nikola Jokic says the Trail Blazers “didn’t even play that good” Wednesday night while evening up their second-round series with a 97-90 victory.
The big fella finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds in the loss, adding that it was a “weird game.”
CJ McCollum led the way for Portland with 20 points, and Damian Lillard (14 points) said his team made Denver work “the entire game.”
Per The AP:
CJ McCollum led six Trail Blazers in double figures with 20 points in a 97-90 victory at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night that evened their series 1-1.
“It’s very important,” said Enes Kanter, who chipped in 15 points for Portland. “Teams can’t guard him with one man. They were sending double-teams, triple-teams. That’s when I said, ‘He’s making himself better, but at the same time he’s making everybody else better around him.’ He was passing the ball, really active on defense. He’s been unbelievable, man.”
The Nuggets trimmed a 17-point, third-quarter deficit to 95-90 in the final minute thanks to an astonishing 14 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter and a 19-9 run before Rodney Hood’s two free throws with 17 seconds left iced it.
“The good news is they had all of those offensive rebounds but they didn’t convert a lot,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “They were 8 for 24 on second-chance points. We were fortunate we came away not hurt as badly as we could have been on the offensive boards.”
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