Author

Miles DeCaro

Portland Trail Blazers

Blazers run out of gas in Game 6. Nuggets win series 4-2.

by Miles DeCaro
written by Miles DeCaro

Coming off an emotional double overtime loss in Denver, the Blazers need to win tonight to keep their season alive.

10,000 fans cheered them on tonight for the most of this bizarre pandemic season in what could be the last Blazers game of the year.

Pre-game, Damian Lillard was given the 2020-2021 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award and which recognizes “the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.” After his 55 point performance in Game 5 including scoring 17 of the teams 19 points in both overtime periods, it seemed all the more fitting.

Congratulations, Dame. This award is very well deserved.

First Quarter:

Michael Porter made news before the game by saying that he was going to get better shots and be more aggressive.



He wasn’t lying. On the first play of the game, he hit a 3. He would go on to hit his first 6 of the game. Not just first 6 shots, his first 6 three pointers en route to 22(!) first quarter points.

Not to be outdone, Damian Lillard didn’t miss his first shot until the 3:45 mark of the first and started 4-4. He finished the quarter with 12 points.

Despite Porter’s first quarter explosion, the Blazers led for the majority of the quarter and actually shot better as a team from the 3 point line in the quarter at 6-9 (.667) to the Nuggets 6-12 (.500).

Jokic picked up two quick fouls in the first 7 minutes including a sneaky attempt to wrap his arms under Nurkic to draw a foul on Nurk and get him out of the game. He got those types of calls in Denver, but not tonight on the road.

CJ continued to struggle from 3 but was very aggressive getting to the basket and finished the quarter 2-5 FG after hitting his first 2 shots.

Jokic gets an offensive foul at 9:24 trying to sneak a foul on Nurk build grabbing his arms and pulling through. He got the opposite call in Denver. He picks up his second foul at the 5:22 mark and Michael Malone immediately took him out.

Michael Porter continued to score at will to keep them afloat. The Blazers end the quarter with only a 4 point lead despite shooting over 65% from 3 in the quarter.

Heavy minutes for the starters of both teams in the first quarter. You wouldn’t expect anything less in an elimination game.

33-29 Blazers.

Jokic had 0 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds. That’s seems like a win for Denver to only be down by 4.

Second Quarter:

The 2nd unit came in and held things down for the Blazers including a great back door play for a CJ two handed dunk. Good pass from Melo.



Jokic and Nurk continued to have their minutes matched by each coach and came back in together at the 10:30 mark. 2 fouls on Jokic. None on Nurk. That’s unusual this series as Nurk has seemed to constantly be in foul trouble.

Immediate whistle, but on Monte Morris.

Clear foul on Jokic that isn’t called. Tried to steal it from Nurk and got a lot of arm.


Melo with back to back buckets.  

Jokic’s first points at the 9 minute mark of the 2nd quarter. Weird.

Facundo Campazzo somehow got a definitive block on CJ. That may have been his first block in the NBA.



(Editor’s note: According to Basketball Reference, Facundo Campazzo somehow was credited with 14 blocks this season. He also had a famous block on Kobe Bryant in the Olympics) 

CJ continues to struggle from the 3 point line and finishes the have 2-8 from 3, but with 11 points after continuing to stay aggressive and attack the basket.

The good news is the rest of the team is on fire from 3.

Anfernee Simons had 3 including back to back bombs toward the end of the half.

The last minute of the half was very representative with no missed shots, a Porter dunk, Lillard layin, Jokic 3 pointer and tough step back 3 for Dame to finish the half.

This is fun.

68-61 Blazers.



MPJ led the Nuggets with 26 on 10-14 FG, 6-9 from 3pt. Wow.

Dame quietly has 19 on 7-11 fg and 3-5 from 3pt with 7 assists. Maybe we just expect that from him at this point.

8 man rotation for Blazers. Heavy minutes for all 5 starters each over 18 minutes played in the half.

Nuggets going 10 deep, but all 5 starters played more than 17 minutes.

Third quarter:

The Blazers start the 2nd half quickly on a 5 point run to stretch the lead to 12.

Jokic seemed to know that he needed to pick things up for his team and started with back to back easy buckets in the lane. You don’t want him to get going.

Denver won’t go away though. Jokic won’t let them with 11 points in the first 6 minutes including a beautiful Tim Duncan style back shot to answer.

Campazzo and Powell both sit with 4 fouls at the 7:15 mark.

Jokic is putting the Nuggets in his back in the 3rd. 11 points in the first 6 minutes.

Back to back 3s for Lord Covington quell the rally temporarily.

back-to-back pic.twitter.com/jx9Gg2cQaJ

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) June 4, 2021

I can’t believe there are still nets on these hoops because everyone is on fire!

4th foul on Nurkic at the 2 minute mark in the 3rd. All four happened in the 3rd quarter.  Clearly a charge.  Smh.  

 

5th foul on Campazzo at the 1 minute mark in the 3rd.

Monte Morris hits a running 3 pointer at the buzzer to end the quarter and this does not bode well.

101-98 Blazers.

Fourth Quarter:

Paul Millsap floater to start the quarter. Nuggets only down 1. Shot clock violation on first possession for the Blazers. Uh-oh. Not a good start.

Nuggets take the lead on a Monte Morris pull-up. 102-101 at 10:03.

Back to back vintage pull-up midrange jumpers for Melo. Fouled on the second by MPJ for the and-one. Vintage.



MPJ is falling back to earth after missing 2 straight 3s and a turnover.

A Monte Morris 3 cuts the lead to one at 7:06 and Jokic, Nurk and Norman Powell are coming back in for the closing stretch.

Jokic hits a Dame distance 3 to take the lead. That’s not fair.



Nurk gets a bucket off a pretty assist from Lillard.

Jokic misses a contested lay-in and the rebound is pushed out of bounds by JaMychal Green.

Refs call it off the Blazers and Stotts uses his challenge.

Call stands. Unbelievable.

Really bad time for a turnover by Nurk.

Dubious foul call on Norman Powell underneath His 5th. Green hits both.

5th foul on Nurk at 4:01.  Smh.  This isn’t looking good.  

Austin Rivers follows that with a 3 to stretch it to a 9 point lead after a 22-7 run.  Two straight Blazers’ turnovers and then Jokic hits a spinning 5 footer to stretch the lead to 11.

Lillard hits a layup. Next time down, he’s fouled on a 3. Hits all three. Does he still have some magic left?

119-113 with 2:30 to go.

Jokic finished the pick and roll in traffic for a 121-113 lead with 1:24 to go.

After a CJ McCollum layup, Jokic misses and the Nuggets get the offensive rebound. It leads to a Aaron Gordon corner 3.



Dame misses a pull-up 3. 1-6 in the 4th and 1-9 in the 2nd half.  He wasn’t the same after falling hard and hitting his head.  He also played 43 minutes tonight.  

Carmelo and Dame exit at the 30 second mark.

Is that the last time we see Carmelo in the NBA?

Another missed 3. Nuggets rebound.

126-115 Nuggets.


Great win for the Nuggets to close things out on the road. Too much Jokic in the second half. He played like he was the MVP of the league.

Blazers looked tired in the 4th and just ran out of gas. Despite setting an NBA record for most 3 pointers made in a playoff series with 35 and averaging 34.3 PPG Damian Lillard couldn’t summon the late game magic again.

Going into the offseason, this team has a lot of questions to answer.

Do you trade Nurk?

Or CJ?

Does Stotts get another season?

It’ll be interesting to see what Jody Allen, Neil Olshey and company come up with.

A first round exit is not what this team wanted at the beginning of this season, but it’s now happened 4 of the last 5 years.  .  .  .

Nevertheless, a big thank you to all the players and coaches for performing each and every night during a global pandemic. It was fun to watch and we appreciate you, no matter what happens.  

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Portland Trail Blazers

Blazers fall to the Nuggets in first home playoff game

by Miles DeCaro
written by Miles DeCaro

This will be a good one. Teams that win Game 3 in a 7 game series when it’s tied 1-1 coming in go on to win the series 73% of the time. Who will it be tonight?

Playoff pre-game intros at the Moda Center are strong. Crowd is clearly into it and the visuals are well done. There is a lot of energy in this arena. 8,000 fans in the building. What’s up, Charlie Folkstead!



First Quarter:

MPJ travels and then hits a 14 foot floater to start of the scoring. The Nuggets continue giving Aaron Gordon the defensive assignment on Dame.  CJ hits a one legged floater to start the scoring for the Blazers.

RoCo with the nasty reverse dunk on a backdoor cut. Great pass by Nurk. 


Lillard is attacking the basket a lot to start this game and just banged all over Campazzo. Another great pass by Nurkic and the Blazers take a 20-12 lead.  Jokic responds calmly with another 3 pointer.

Great block by Nurk. He’s doing everything tonight.

BROOM BALL off a 3 point miss by Austin Rivers.




Fast pace tonight.  Nuggets seem to have weathered the storm.  A Carmelo free throw with 56 seconds left ends a 3 minute scoring drought for the Blazers.

Denver is 7-10 from 3 to start the game.  Portland needs some defense.

39-30 Nuggets.

Second Quarter:

Nurk came to play tonight against his old team. He’s everywhere battling. Gets an offensive rebound and put back for an and-one.




Better defense for Portland in the 2nd quarter. Nurk gets a steal and immediately turns into another assist for a layup.

Another great pass by Nurk for the lob that leads to an Anfernee Simons layup.

5 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists for Nurkic. 




Norman Powell loses a shoe and the Nuggets get a transition dunk from Jokic to stretch the lead to 10 at 53-43 with 5 minutes to go in the first half.

Four point play for MPJ at 3:51. Tough call on Norman Powell.  Followed by an offensive foul on MPJ kicking out his leg to try to get another 4 point play. You win some and lose some.

Another turnover caused by Nurk’s defense leads to a transition dunk for Dame.



Lillard leads the game in scoring with 20 and Jokic leads Denver
with 16.

Nurkic had 7 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block.  He was everywhere.

Nuggets are shooting 60% from 3pt at 12-20 and the Blazers are 5-17 for 29.4% from 3pt. Denver’s bench is outscoring Portland’s 20-5. These are the difference right now.

This game has been really fun to watch and is living up to Michael Wilbon’s prediction that it would be “the best game of the playoffs so far.”

64-59 Denver.

Third Quarter:

Powell hit a 3 to start the 2nd half.  Jokic responds with a free throw line jumper and then Campazzo hits a 3.

The Blazers can’t break the seal here as the Nuggets have consistently hit shots to keep them at bay and remain ahead by about 7-12 since the end of the first quarter.

After a Norman Powell dunk, Jokic hits back to back 3 pointers. He is on fire tonight. 10-13 fg, 4-6 from 3pt for 24 points.

Stotts uses his challenge for a charge call on Nurkic on Campazzo.  Not sure that is a good idea.




The call is upheld. Tough one but I think it was a good call. Campazzo is a pest on defense.

Another offensive rebound and putback by Nurk cuts the lead to 75-70 and the Portland crowd cheers on their team to try to will them back into this.

Dame presses the turbo button to zoom past Jokic for a laying to cut the lead to 75-72. Cut to the Ne-Yo house music “Let’s Go” and the crowd goes wild.

Great after time out play from Michael Malone. Pin down screen to allow Jokic to cut to the basket. Gets fouled. Hits both free throws.

Melo finally hits a 3 after almost 2 full games of misses and the lead is 2. Chants of “Let’s Go Blazers!”




Nurkic with more offensive rebounding and another putback cuts the lead to 2 again after a couple Jokic free throws.

Enes Kanter come is at 1:31 to go after a no call on a Nurkic layup leads to a 4th foul called on him.

Jokic rag dolls Kanter for an offensive rebound and then Kanter loses his footing and responds with a 90’s playoff foul. Will likely be a flagrant.

Yep, the call is upgraded to a Flagrant 1. Two shots and the ball back. That is a killer.

Jokic hits both free throws, but then a moving screen is called on JaMychal Green, so the Blazers escape the flagrant only giving up 2 points.

Monte Morris is called for traveling with 1.6 seconds left. Back to back turnovers for the Nuggets. Crowd may be having an effect on them.

Melo barely misses a chance a buzzer beating 3 after a smart 3/4 court pass.

Blazers defense stepped up and held the Nuggets to 25% shooting in the 3rd quarter.

84-79 Nuggets. The fourth should be a good one.

Fourth Quarter:

Hollis Jefferson comes in for Kanter. I guess Billy Donovan was right: “Can’t play Kanter” at least in the playoffs.

Simons misses a wide open corner 3 that would have been big.  MPJ corner 3 on the other end stretches the lead to 8.  They just can’t break the seal.

CJ misses a long two. Scoreless in the second half. He needs to step up here.

On queue, he gets himself to the line for two FTs. Maybe that will get him going.  Lillard back in at 9:14. Much earlier than normal.  CJ gets into the lane and gets a bucket. 89-83.

Melo with a nice pump fake, dribble and corner 3. 91-86. This is getting good.

Nurk comes back at the 7:30 mark. So does Jokic.

Immediately a tough call on Nurk trying to deny Jokic for his 5th foul at 7:20. That will be big.

Another 3 for Melo and he has 8 in the in first 5 minutes of the 4th. 91-91.



Great defensive hustle by Campazzo.  Chased down a transition opportunity, poked it away from behind, and saved it in the corner.  Those are winning plays.

Jokic misses three straight and the crowd is INTO it.  Rivers hits a wing 3 to bring the lead to 94-91.

CJ hits one of two FTs and the Nuggets lead by 2.

Nurk fouls out at 5:17 on an Aaron Gordon and-one.  Stupid foul.  

Looks like Stotts is rolling with a small lineup to finish the game. RoCo at 5, Melo at 4, Powell at 3, CJ and Dame.

Gordon misses the FT and Melo goes in the way back machine to take Jokic to the rack for a nice layup.

Austin Rivers hits another big 3 to stretch the lead to 5 and then again to make it an 8 point lead with 3:49 left.



Lillard shakes off Aaron Gordon for a big layup. Chants of “Defense!  Defense!” fill the Moda Center.

Two free throws and an easy layup from Jokic stretch the score to 10.

Dame responds with a deep wing 3. Aaron Gordon dunk and then a Norman Powell dunk.

Lot of energy in the arena.  It’s great to hear fans into a playoff game.

Carmelo ties up Jokic and then wins the jump ball.  Wow.

Dame gets a dunk and was probably fouled but no call. It’s about that time.

Austin Rivers hits another 3 with 1:24 to go and that may be it. 



Dame misses back-to-back 3s.  Rivers misses a 3 and Carmelo tries to save it, but it goes into backcourt and right to Facundo Campazzo. He hits both free throws and its a 10 point lead.  That was a killer.

Dame hits a 3 after being fouled by Aaron Gordon for only the 3rd foul on Denver in the 4th quarter.

Austin Rivers is fouled and hits both free throws. 115-106 with 30 seconds to go.  What a quarter for him!

Carmelo responds with a 3 from the right break with 24.5 seconds gives Portland a little bit of life.

Campazzo misses one of two FTs. Dame responds with a 3.

Wild sequence where Campazzo loses the ball and as he’s falling down, pushes it towards Monte Morris. Looks like he got picked but the refs call a foul on Norman Powell.

Morris hits both FTs to make it 118-112. That will probably do it.

CJ hits a 3 and it’s 118-115.

Monte Morris is fouled with 3.2 seconds. Blazers need him to miss both.

Misses the first. . .

and second. . . 

But Jokic gets the rebound and putback to finish it off at 120-115. 




3 point shooting was the difference tonight. Blazers are 14-45 (31.1%) from 3 on the game and the Nuggets were 20-38 (52.6%)

Tough loss for the Blazers.

Game 4 on Saturday at 1:00pm PST back at the Moda Center.

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