The Portland Trail Blazers were embarrassed by the Denver Nuggets in Game 5, but even before the final whistle blew, Damian Lillard got up from his seat on the bench, looking at the eyes of every one of his teammates to deliver a message: “We just need to get back here,” Lillard said he repeated to each player, noting the Blazers would need to win Game 6 at home to force a Game 7 back at the Pepsi Center, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. The message resonated with his teammates, as the series will have to go through Denver to be won. Lillard’s refusal to lay down in this moment speaks to the Blazers’ perseverance, the same they had when first losing center Jusuf Nurkic for the season: “I thought it was a great message from our leader,” said forward Maurice Harkless. “He’s right. The series is not over. It’s far from over.” The Blazers have made a habit of fighting, and even if they eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder with a gentlemen’s sweep, Lillard isn’t afraid of clawing his way to a win: “Any time you have something special, it’s not special because it was easy,” said Lillard. “It’s not special because you were never in a tough position. That’s where we are now: facing elimination, and that’s what makes this special.” “That’s what our season has been about,” Lillard added before shrugging his shoulder. “Here we are again.” The Blazers have overcome instances of hardship like the loss of late owner Paul Allen, as well as a recent accident involving video coordinator Jonathan Yim, whom the coaches honored with bow ties during Game 2. Just like their entire season, the Blazers will have to fight yet again and hope to muster an excuse to return to Denver for a do-or-die Game 7.<doc-sep>Damian Lillard explains how the Blazers' backs are against the wall and feels the team hasn't played its best yet. (0:34) DENVER -- Backed up against elimination following a disappointing Game 5 where the Denver Nuggets led by as many as 31 points, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard said he was still waiting for his team to play its best game. "We don't feel like we've played our best basketball yet, and with our backs against the wall, we don't really have a choice," Lillard said. "So our mindset is just to get the next one, take care of home, and make it back here. So that's what it is." Lillard had a similar viewpoint at the Blazers' shootaround Tuesday morning when talking about why he has confidence to win another game in Denver. "Knowing that we've won here once and also knowing that we haven't played our best yet," Lillard said. "We haven't played a really good game in our opinion. It would be great to have that happen tonight." Well, it didn't. The Nuggets housed the Blazers 124-98 in an atypical game for the series. Entering Game 5, the cumulative score in the series was separated by two points. The Nuggets set an early tone, and with Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic remaining matchup issues on the interior, and the Blazers' top scorers not keeping pace, the game got away from Portland. "They played as good as they can play and we played as worse a game as we could play," Lillard said. Most everything kind of went wrong for the Blazers, starting with hitting 36.7 percent from the field, to missing 14 free throws, to getting crushed on the glass 62-44, to noticeably struggling with defensive coverages throughout the game. "This was our worst basketball the last six weeks," Enes Kanter said. Lillard's calm, focused demeanor is a driving force for the Blazers and he wasn't reactionary following the deflating performance in Game 5. "Whether you lose by one or you lose by 25, it's one game," Lillard said. "We're going back home to try and force a Game 7 and just make it back here." Lillard showed a bit more of an aggressive scoring mindset early, taking a couple of deep 3-pointers off the dribble, something the Nuggets have worked to take away in the series. He finished with 22 points on 9-of-21 shooting and, along with CJ McCollum (12 points on 5-of-16 shooting), sat the entire fourth quarter. After winning the quadruple-overtime marathon in Game 3, the Blazers dropped a tight Game 4 and appeared to carry some of the regret Tuesday of not taking advantage of an exhausted Nuggets team. "I don't think anybody in here feels like we can't beat them," forward Maurice Harkless said. "I know what we're capable of. We've been in tough situations before and we've figured out a way to make stuff happen." Game 6 is Thursday in Portland and, if the Blazers can win, Game 7 would be in Denver on Sunday. "We've got two must-wins," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "Somebody was gonna have a must-win after tonight, and it's us. So we've got two must-wins ahead of us."<doc-sep>It’s the classic conundrum in a playoff series against a team with a superstar — make him score an outrageous number of points to beat you, or force his teammates to do it? The Nuggets chose option B against the Blazers and Damian Lillard, and through five games of this Western Conference semifinal series the strategy has worked. Which is to say nothing of what might happen Thursday in Game 6 in Portland, because after all we’re talking about Lillard and we’re talking about the Nuggets. “He’s capable of scoring 50 in Game 6 and we’re well aware of that,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. For the second consecutive series, the Nuggets go into a Game 6 on the road holding a 3-2 lead. The last time was a disaster — Denver fell apart in the fourth quarter and San Antonio waltzed to a 120-103 victory. The Nuggets, of course, saved themselves in Game 7.<doc-sep>
The Denver Nuggets regained home-court advantage against the Portland Trail Blazers with a 116-112 win Sunday night in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinals series. Denver evened the series at 2-2 headed back home thanks in part to a defensive approach that has kept Blazers All-Star Damian Lillard from dominating the Nuggets like he did the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. “We didn’t want him getting 33 (points) a night,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said in reference to Lillard’s average in five playoff games against the Thunder. "So tonight, yes he scores 28, but he was 9 of 22 from the field and only 2 of 7 from three(-point range). But this is carryover. If you look at our regular-season meetings we did a really good job of guarding him then, so our players have confidence in that, our players have confidence in guarding CJ (McCollum).” Still, despite preventing any signature “Lillard Time” moments through the first four games of the series, Malone and the Nuggets know the job isn’t done. “We know we haven’t done anything yet. It’s a tied series, we’ve taken home-court advantage back but Dame is capable of putting up 40 or 50 in a heartbeat. So by no means are we thinking we’ve figured him out. It’s just going out there and doing it for 48 minutes, because he just keeps on coming at you and our guys have really responded to that.” In the video above, hear from Blazers coach Terry Stotts, Malone and Lillard himself on how he’s fared against the aggressive Denver defense this series. Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox