The Portland Trail Blazers made a game of it, but ultimately fell just short on Sunday night—falling 1116-112 to the Denver Nuggets in Game 4 of their Western Conference Semifinals match-up. The series is now tied 2-2. Jamal Murray led all scorers with 34 points, while CJ McCollum led the Blazers with 29 of his own in another terrific individual performance.
As the clock wound down on Game 4 in Philadelphia, ABC’s Mark Jones started to work his way through the superlatives over a Kawhi Leonard highlight reel. Starting with “magisterial” and ending somewhere related to “unstoppable”, he managed to sum up the general mood around Leonard as it relates to Raptors fans. To put it simply — there hasn’t been a player like him in the history of the franchise.
Throughout his career, Draymond Green built his reputation as an elite defender and a versatile offensive contributor who can sometimes help out on the scoreboard. He did very little of that during the regular season, posting the fewest win shares since his rookie year, per Basketball Reference.
In a monumental matchup between two Eastern Conference contenders, the Milwaukee Bucksoutlasted the Boston Celtics, 123-116.
The first half was a, in a word, slugfest. Both teams fought tooth and nail, and Milwaukee entered halftime down only one point. Then a huge third quarter (40-31) pushed the Bucks up by eight points, and a strangely friendly whistle in the early portion of the fourth quarter allowed Milwaukee to maintain a decent lead, and a late game quasi-comeback in the form of an 8-0 run within 2 minutes from Boston took things to the final margin.
It will occur a round earlier than most probably expected, but the No. 1 seed Golden State Warriors will face the No. 4 Houston Rockets in the second round of the 2019 NBA playoffs, beginning on Sunday in Oakland. The two teams squared off in the best series of last year's playoffs in the Western Conference finals, with the Warriors emerging in seven games after falling behind 3-2.
What a performance by the Denver Nuggets.
After an exhausting and mentally taxing Game 7 just 48 hours ago, it would have been reasonable for the them to give less than 100% effort. Not so. Every single player contributed in his own way and Denver turned a shootout into a solid 121-113 Game 1 win.
“We’ve all been in every sort of game — behind 3-2, up 3-2, up 3-0, everything,” began Gregg Popovich on Thursday, putting an answer to a pregame question in terms that I’m quite sure no one in the room could actually relate to. Not me, not Project Spurs’ Paul Garcia, not even the coach in the opposing locker room, Michael Malone, who was himself heading into his first career Game 6, as well as his first elimination game.
Kevin Durant carried the Warriors with 35 points in Game 1: -Scored 10 of the Warriors' 15 points over the final 4:34 of the 3rd with Steph Curry on the bench in foul trouble -Scored 9 of the Warriors' 15 points over the final 5:35 of the 4th with the game up in the air.
The Rockets missed an opportunity to close out this series and get a little rest before their potential semifinal matchup with the Golden State Warriors after giving away a game they had controlled for the first three quarters. They will be trying to bounce back from their disappointing fourth quarter performance and close out the series with a win on Wednesday.
