C.J. McCollum on Wednesday night scored 20 points, picking up the slack with backcourt teammate Damian Lillard struggling, as the Portland Trail Blazers turned back the Denver Nuggets 97-90 to even their playoff series at 1-1.
The Trail Blazers led by 15 at halftime, 17 in the third quarter and 14 to start the fourth, but the Nuggets pulled to 95-90 in the final minute thanks to an astonishing 14 offensive rebounds 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 eight 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.”
“[Nikola] Jokic and [Paul] Millsap were just playing volleyball with it. They’re both excellent offensive rebounders. They’re a top-three offensive rebounding team anyway and we’ve got to make sure they don’t have those opportunities in Game 3,” he added.
Lillard added 14 points, but was just five of 17 from the floor and one of seven from three-point range, 24 hours after scoring 39 in the series opener.
Still, the Blazers seized the home-court advantage with the series shifting to Portland for Game 3 tonight.
Jokic had 16 points and 14 boards, but got off to a slow start and was not nearly the take-control force he was in Game 1, when he scored 37 points.
With Jokic taking — and missing — just one shot in the first quarter and scoring six points in the first half, the Nuggets trailed 50-35 at halftime after the franchise’s worst quarter ever at home in the playoffs, one in which they made just five of 23 shots and missed all 10 of their three-pointers.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said that he admonished his team at halftime, telling them: “If you’re not making shots, maybe attack the basket, maybe get to the foul line, maybe get to the rim.”
“We were getting such open looks. I understand our players shooting the shot, but when you’re not having a night when you’re making a shot consistently, you’ve got to attack the basket, you’ve got to push pressure on the rim. You’ve got to think attack instead of settle. And I thought in that first half we didn’t have that mind-set,” he said.
To top it off, they lost spark plug forward Torrey Craig, whose nose was bloodied after he was knocked down and slammed into teammate Monte Morris’ foot early in the second quarter.
Moments after Craig hobbled off, leaving a trail of blood, Maurice Harkless rolled his right ankle and also left the game. Harkless did not return, but Craig came back in the second half.
The Nuggets were booed off the court at the break after missing their final eight shots.
Denver’s backcourt were just five of 18 in the first half, including two of 11 from Jamal Murray, who would miss much of the fourth quarter while trying to loosen up his injured right thigh.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was