Blazers Take Game 3 After an Unforgettable Night, 140-137

Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets played one of the most exciting games of the playoff history last night at Moda Center. The two sides competed for 68 minutes before Rodney Hood decided the match.

It tied the longest match ever played in the postseason.

“I was just happy (it’s over),” said Damian Lillard. “It’s two teams fighting for their season, nobody said it’s going to be easy, nobody said it’s going to be easy.”

Dame didn’t have one of his nights, as he scored just 28 points. “Just,” we say because he did play 58 minutes.

Luckily for the Trail Blazers, it was CJ McCollum who led the team and was hot in the crucial moments. Even though his shooting percentage hasn’t been that shiny, McCollum was 16 of 39 but very lethal when the game was on the line. In the end, he dropped 41 on Nuggets’ smashing their backcourt, especially Jamal Murray, who was helpless when facing McCollum.

“We wanted that game bad; we played on our home floor. Our fans gave us a lot of energy tonight,” CJ said to the reporter on the floor, barely standing on his feet.

ESPN reporter asked him does he knows how many minutes did he spent playing.

“50 plus,” the player answered.

“How about 60?” the reporter asked once again.

McCollum then started to name all the things he did throughout his career to reach this level of physical condition – workouts, diets, massages, sleep, etc.

During an overtimes, he sunk a couple of threes which kept the Blazers in the game when Denver threatened to make some runs.

Still, the most important three of the game was Rodney Hood’s. With 18.6 seconds to go, the experienced forward who didn’t quite fulfill his potential over the past few seasons, buried a go-ahead three which gave a 138-136 lead to the home team.

“I had no idea that I’d end up in Portland in this type of situation. But to be here, to have my family in the crowd when I saw a lot of sad faces last go-round, to be here is very emotional for me, to be quite frank.” the hero of the game said.

Hood scored 19 points.

Rodney Hood came up CLUTCH in 4OT. 🔥#RipCity | #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/NB1QcVNXzE

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 4, 2019

Now, once we already mentioned minutes, there is one guy who barely left the game at all. Nikola Jokic played for 65 minutes. The Serbian center was tireless, and was trying to give his team an edge which they could exploit, but unfortunately, all that time on the floor did the damage in the end.

He was fouled after Hood’s three, and sent to the free throw line. The Joker missed the first and hit the second shot. On the other end of the court, Seth Curry made both his attempts and the game was closed.

Jokic’s unreal triple-double didn’t mean anything in the end. Nuggets’ center had 33 points, 18 boards, and 14 assists, for his third TD in the postseason. He also reached the fourth place on the all-time list in minutes during one playoff game.

Nuggets had two chances to seal the game, in the overtimes, once it was Jokic who missed a three, and the second time Jamal Murray. Most of the people would say that Jokic lost the game, but that wouldn’t be fair, because several of Denver’s players had mistakes which could be labeled as crucial.

The referees had a show of their own too, with a couple of controversial calls, which irritated both teams. During one jump ball between Murray and Lillard, one of them threw the ball in the air almost above Lillard’s head, which made Nuggets’ players furious because there were 4.1 seconds to go, and the jump ball was in front of Blazers’s basket.

All in all, Game 4 is a must see. Who will recover faster, and who will be less emotionally drained, that is the main thing now.