The Portland Trail Blazers responded well to their Game 5 loss to set the stage for Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon. Sunday, May 12 at 3:30 PM ET Pepsi Center Coverage: ABC *All odds and betting info courtesy of OddsShark and originally posted by Bookmaker Portland Trail Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets (-5.5 at -110) Over/Under: 212.5 at -110 Lillard, McCollum and Hood Pace Trail Blazers The Trail Blazers forced a Game 7 with an impressive 119-108 win in Game 6 against the Nuggets last Thursday. Damian Lillard finished with 32 points, five assists and three rebounds, CJ McCollum added 30 points, six rebounds and three assists and Rodney Hood went off for a playoff career-high 25 points in 32 minutes off the bench. Nikola Jokic had 29 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Nuggets, Jamal Murray put up 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Paul Millsap added 17 points, six rebounds and three steals and Gary Harris finished with 15 points and five assists. Defense and rebounding made a difference for the Trail Blazers in Game 6. They gave up 124 points in Game 5, the most in regulation during this playoffs. The Nuggets outrebounded them 62-43, with 52 of the 62 rebounds allowed being defensive rebounds off the 62 shots that the Trail Blazers missed. The Trail Blazers made significant improvements in both areas in Game 6, they got outrebounded 44-43 but they let the Nuggets pull down just 28 defensive rebounds off their 48 missed shots while they grabbed 32 defensive rebounds off the 53 missed attempts from their opponent. Rodney Hood scored a playoff career-high 25 PTS to help the Blazers force Game 7 pic.twitter.com/OgHKTuxiWw — Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) May 10, 2019 Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless struggled in Game 6; Aminu scored seven points but he was just 1-for-4 from the free-throw line and he finished with a team-low -9 plus/minus (+/-) in 17 minutes while Harkless had just two points on 1 of 5 shooting in 16 minutes for a -8 plus/minus (+/-). With Aminu and Harkless having off nights, Rodney Hood, the team’s third-leading scorer in this series, stepped up once again, delivering 25 points on 8-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range, proving that he was always this good and just needed a chance to showcase his talent. Trail Blazers vs. Nuggets Trends and Prediction The Portland Trail Blazers are: 34-16-3 ATS in their last 53 games following a straight up win of more than 10 points 26-12 ATS in their last 38 games when their opponent allows 100 points or more in their previous game 5-2 ATS in their last seven games when their opponent scores 100 points or more in their previous game The Denver Nuggets are: No key trends Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum had 30-point games on Thursday and the Trail Blazers need them to have a similar type of performance if they want to win Game 7. Both players are tailor-made for the bright lights and if Aminu and Harkless get going and Hood continues to shine they will be in good shape on Sunday. Lillard, McCollum and Hood Combine For 87 Points In PIVOTAL Game 6 | May 9, 2019The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Denver Nuggets by a final score of 119-108 to force a winner-take-all Game 7. The Trail Blazers were led by the trio of Damian Lillard (32 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists), C.J. McCollum (30 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists), and Rodney Hood (25 points, 4 assists) in the… 2019-05-10T05:59:33.000Z The Trail Blazers did a good job retooling their effort on defense and rebounding and if they keep that increased focus and energy they can advance to the Western Conference Finals. Pick: Trail Blazers +5.5 READ NEXT: Is James Harden the 2019 NBA MVP over Giannis Antetokounmpo?<doc-sep>When the final whistle was called and the Western Conference semifinals were decided, there was an understandable deflated vibe at Pepsi Center. The Nuggets led by as many as 17 points but couldn’t hold on in a heartbreaking 100-96 defeat in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday. After the result, there was a somber mood in the locker room, but there was also another emotion that was prevalent: Quiet confidence. “For us, tonight is the end of the season, but I’m not going to allow this Game 7 loss to take away from a magical year,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said after the game. “It doesn’t feel that way right now, but when I reflect and when our players reflect on what we were able to accomplish – hell of a year. I couldn’t ask for anything more from our guys.” And what a year it was. The Nuggets finished the regular season with 54 wins, good for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. It was their first playoff appearance in six year and Denver didn’t disappoint. Their 14-game run introduced America into the phenom that is Nikola Jokić. It showcased the growing young talents the team has in Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Malik Beasley and Monte Morris among others. It also saw Paul Millsap produce arguably the finest postseason performances of his 13-year career. As disappointing as Sunday was, there is a prevailing sense that this young team (the eighth-youngest in NBA playoff history) will take this postseason experience and grow from it. “The future is so bright, you heard me say it all postseason. I love the moment. I love where we’re at, but more importantly, I love where we’re going and who we’re going there with,” Malone said. Jokić shared his coach’s thoughts. “When we started this season and training camp, we said let’s make the playoffs and then we were playing really good and we were not in the last spot the last couple of weeks and we said let’s do something bigger,” he said. “We had homecourt advantage. We beat San Antonio in seven games, it was a really tough series against Portland today. “It’s improvement for us. This is our first time being here and hopefully next year we’re going to be better.” Millsap has been on several playoff teams in his 13-year career and he was impressed with how quickly his younger teammates were able to learn on the fly in the playoffs and adjust. “It’s an unbelievable stretch, amazing run from guys who haven’t been there before,” Millsap. “They learned fast, they picked up on what the playoffs were about early, and as a veteran in this locker room, I’m so proud of all the younger guys in here for the challenges that they went through and they fought through. They learned so quickly to get to this point. I’m proud of everybody in this locker room.” Jokić was one of the players who really showed growth in all aspects of his game. He almost averaged a triple-double in the playoffs, going for 24.8 points, 13 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game while shooting 51.5 percent. After the game, Jokić tried to shoulder the blame for the Nuggets losing Game 7. "They look at me as a leader," he said. "They look at me as their best player and yeah, I missed that one free throw at the end. I missed a free throw in the Portland game that lead to 4 overtime and I feel responsible just because I missed a lot of shots. I was supposed to make some of those." Although Jokić isn’t the reason why the Nuggets lost, it was a display of his growth as a leader. He doesn’t shy away from the responsibility of being a franchise player, he embraces it. This is probably what the Nuggets envisioned when they signed him to his multi-year extension last summer. “I got Nikola Jokić in there taking blame for the loss. It’s not his fault, this is a group effort,” Malone said. “I think the cumulative effect of 14 playoff games and us asking him to do as much as we asked him to do finally took its toll on him tonight. This group really did play for each other, not just with each other.” Murray was another player who showed significant improvement throughout the playoffs. Although he struggled in Game 7, the 22-year-old went toe-to-toe with Portland’s superstar in Damian Lillard. Murray averaged 24.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists in the Western Conference semifinals, an impressive uptick from his season averages of 18.2 points, 4.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds. The Canadian point guard has shown improvement each season and he now enters the summer with big expectations after showing his potential in the postseason. “Jamal [Murray] will be a huge part of [the Nuggets] future,” Malone said. “Going into the offseason, having a game like he had, going 4-of-18 from the field, that’s going to be a great motivation tool for him.” The Nuggets entered the 2018-19 season with some hopes of being a playoff team. They wrapped up their 14-game run showing why they can be one of the league’s perennial contenders. The league is certainly taking notice. “The Denver Nuggets had an outstanding season, no one saw that coming,” Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said after the game. “With what they did in the regular season, winning close games, winning the division, [Nikola] Jokić is an amazing player, they’re a young team, they’re going to have a lot of success moving forward.”<doc-sep>Rodney Hood has been the star of the Portland Trail Blazers' bench in this beautiful, exhausting, exhilarating battle against the Denver Nuggets, and he deserves all the public fawning. He's averaging 16 points on 60 percent (!) shooting, and brutalizing whichever undersized guard the Nuggets throw at him -- to the point that Denver for one stretch of Game 6 slid Paul Millsap onto Hood, and a smaller wing onto Evan Turner. The Nuggets might want to try that again in Game 7. Hood is beasting in the post. He is averaging 1.37 points per isolation in the postseason, second behind Marcus Morris among players who have recorded at least 15 such plays, per Second Spectrum. He has proven up to the challenge of defending Jamal Murray. Swapping Hood for one of Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu -- 7-of-30 combined from deep in this series -- has upped Portland's shooting quotient without compromising its defense. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, dealing with traps at every turn, have more space to breathe with Hood on the floor. He has punished Denver for creeping away to help on Portland's central pick-and-roll action: It has been a wonderful story. Hood quaked under the pressure of replacing Gordon Hayward in Utah, and disintegrated playing with LeBron James in Cleveland on the game's biggest stages. He has rediscovered his game, and his confidence, amid Portland's healthy culture. With one of Lillard and McCollum always on the floor, Hood can focus on what comes naturally to him (scoring) instead of what has always seemed a little outside his wheelhouse (running an offense). Neil Olshey, Portland's general manager, grabbing Hood for Wade Baldwin, Nik Stauskas, and two future second-round picks on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday -- four days before the trade deadline -- barely registered, but the Blazers would not be playing in Game 7 without that deal. Hood has had some bench help in the form of a reserve with much more long-term importance to Portland: Zach Collins, the edgy and roaring big man who has spent time at both power forward and center against Denver, and thrived in both roles. Olshey traded the 15th and 20th picks (Justin Jackson and Harry Giles III) in the 2017 draft to Sacramento to move up and select Collins with the 10th pick. Some insiders dubbed the move a reach -- some dub any splashy draft-day move for a big man a reach as the league evolves toward guards and wings -- and Donovan Mitchell indeed went three spots later. But the Blazers had no pressing need for Mitchell with Lillard and McCollum on board. Portland bet Collins would mesh with their star guards before they exited their primes, and that bet is starting to pay off. The Blazers have outscored Denver by 22 points in 113 minutes with Hood and Collins on the floor, per NBA.com. They have played together mostly in bench-and-McCollum lineups that have generally won the starts of second and fourth quarters. Denver has countered with lineups featuring Millsap as the lone starter, but those groups have been a disaster despite Millsap's best "adult in the room" efforts. Turner, working as a small-ball power forward, has battled Millsap in the post since Game 4 after Millsap bullied him in the earlier part of the series. Collins took the Millsap assignment for a couple of possessions in Game 6, leaving Turner to guard Mason Plumlee; the Blazers might want to revisit that setup if Millsap gets into a Game 7 groove. Denver dumping the ball to Plumlee in the post against Turner is a win for the Blazers. Small children should avert their eyes during Plumlee's laborious post-ups. One of these teams has only 48 minutes left in its season. Those bench-on-bench clashes become even more fraught Sunday. Expect both coaches to treat them with more urgency. Murray started the fourth quarter of Game 6 alongside Millsap -- a second starter to bolster the bench mob -- and Michael Malone might want to have one of Murray and Gary Harris (stout all series) on the floor at all times in a do-or-die game. Malone will surely stretch Nikola Jokic as far as he can go, and he has already gone a preposterous 65 minutes in one epic game in this series. Portland has been wary of matching Collins and Jokic in center-versus-center minutes. Jokic can bulldoze Collins in the post, though Collins thwarted him on one key faceup attack late in Game 6 and drew a charge about a minute later on one of those delicious inverted Jokic pick-and-rolls. Doubling Jokic only unlocks his lethal passing game. Collins is vulnerable on the defensive glass. He's still filling out. Keep an eye on the minutes chess match. Good thing Collins can play next to Enes Kanter, too -- and defend Denver's power forwards. Portland is plus-15 in 31 Collins-Kanter minutes against the Nuggets, per NBA.com. Millsap has shot just 1-of-11 when matched up with Collins, according to Second Spectrum. Editor's Picks Lowe: Can the Sixers win big with Ben Simmons? Lowe: Twenty-three reasons to enjoy the wild Blazers-Nuggets series 1 Related So many of Portland's games against the best competition come down to whether Aminu and Harkless make open 3s. If they miss early, Collins has made a strong case to usurp more minutes at power forward. He and Hood played four minutes of Game 6 in place of the Harkless/Aminu duo alongside Portland's three other starters -- Lillard, McCollum and the tough-as-all-hell Kanter. That five-man group is plus-6 in nine total minutes for the series. Might we see it again Sunday? Collins has the blurry outlines of a modern big who can protect the rim, shoot 3s, post up guards on switches, and do just enough off the dribble to hurt you. (Witness his Eurostep floater in Game 5 when Denver trapped Lillard on the pick-and-roll, and let Collins slither into open space.) Those outlines have sharpened a bit in these playoffs. Collins is 4-of-12 from deep in the postseason, and has looked comfortable jacking from above the break.<doc-sep>By all accounts, Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard did not have one of his best statistical performances in Portland's 100-96 victory versus the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 Sunday afternoon at the Pepsi Center. He made just three of his 17 field goal attempts for 13 points, though he did come within a few assists of a triple-double with 10 rebounds and eight assists. He also tallied three steals and turned the ball over just once -- Portland as a team committed just four turnovers -- and was a +8 in 45 minutes, so it would be inaccurate to dub it a "bad" performance, but it certainly wasn't up to his lofty offensive standards. But the work that Lillard has put in keeping the Trail Blazers together ever since they were swept by the Pelicans in the first round of the 2018 Postseason was one of the main reasons Portland was able to come back from a 17-point deficit to defeat Denver on their home floor. CJ McCollum's 37 points on 17-of-29 shooting and Evan Turner's late-game execution were of utmost importance, but Lillard remaining steadfast in his belief that this iteration of the Portland Trail Blazers were better than they had shown themselves to be over the course of back-to-back postseason sweeps is one of the only reasons the team was in their current position in the first place. So as he walked off the court to join his team, one that he had believed in so strongly, in the locker room, Lillard started to get well up. It was only for a moment, but after enduring a year of doubt, he allowed himself the chance to get caught in the moment. "I was telling people, after back-to-back sweeps, everybody was like 'Where do you go?'" said Lillard. "Everybody wanted to make us feel defeated and put us down, cross us out. 'Dame and CJ can't do this,' all this stuff. I just kept our message to our team, to our coaches, to the media, to the fans I just kept saying 'We've just got to stay the course.' When you go through stuff like that and you keep working hard, you stay together, you stick with it, there's something waiting for you in the end." Western Conference Finals bound for the first time in 19 years! MOOD pic.twitter.com/e7JgQZ5t0b — Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) May 12, 2019 In this case, that end is the Trail Blazers' first trip to the Western Conference Finals in nearly two decades. That's not to say he nor the team are satisfied with just making it to the conference finals, where they'll face the one-seed Golden State Warriors, but winning a Game 7 on the road, in a game in which they trailed by 17 points, after their starting center and arguably their second-best player went down with a gruesome injury served as validation for the time and effort invested in Portland when others suggested he'd be better off somewhere else. "When people don't put the time in, they not truly together as a group, it don't happen for them," said Lillard. "But everything people know about us, that's who we are as a group. We together, we care about each other, we work hard, we the sum of our parts. And we went through two tough, tough teams. OKC and Denver, that's a tough route. Now we got the Warriors." Whereas Portland's victory in five games versus the Thunder in the first round seemed like a confirmation of Lillard's individual skills and status as one of the NBA's elite players -- ending a series with a 37-foot buzzer-beater will do that -- defeating the two-seed Nuggets in seven games served as as more of a reminder that the 2018-19 Trail Blazers are a true team in every sense of the word. They didn't quit (winning Game 3 in four overtimes), they didn't let one poor performance (getting blown out in Game 5) deter them from their goal, they stepped in and performed when others couldn't (Rodney Hood stepping in for Moe Harkless, and then Harkless doing the same for Hood when he suffered a knee injury in the third quarter of Game 7) and most of all, they stayed together. So while Lillard's individual performance in Game 7 won't go down as the reasons the Blazers advanced, his unwavering belief over the last 13 months that better days were ahead should. "We're able to do stuff like this because of the way our culture is and because of us being committed, even through the darkest times," said Lillard. "When you go through the darkest times and you stay true to it and keep going, this is what happens. You get a real shot."<doc-sep>
The Portland Trail Blazers have advanced to the Western Conference finals, thanks to a 100-96 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of their second-round series. This will be Portland's first WCF appearance since 2000. Early on, it appeared the Nuggets were going to run the Trail Blazers out of the gym. They were up by 12 at the end of the first quarter, and extended that lead to 17 points in the second. But the Blazers used a nice run at the end of the half to cut the deficit to nine points. It not only made things more manageable, but gave them plenty of positive momentum. They continued their comeback in the third quarter, getting right back into the game behind CJ McCollum, who was fantastic all night. When McCollum hit a jumper late in the quarter, it gave the Blazers their first lead of the game. From there, the fourth quarter was a wild, back-and-forth affair as the two teams traded big baskets time and again. In the closing seconds, McCollum hit a step-back jumper to give the Blazers a three-point lead, and after some free throws on each side, that was the game. McCollum finished with 37 points and nine rebounds to lead the Blazers, while Nikola Jokic went for 29 points and 13 rebounds for the Nuggets. Here are some takeaways from the Blazers' thrilling victory: McCollum delivers in the clutch For most of the postseason, Damian Lillard has received the accolades in Portland -- and for good reason. But McCollum has been strong as well, and he kept that up with a massive performance on Sunday afternoon. When the Blazers were on the verge of being run out of the gym in the first half, McCollum was the only one scoring and keeping them in the game. And in the third quarter, he continued to power their comeback, eventually drilling a jumper in the closing seconds of the frame to give the Blazers their first lead of the night. Down the stretch, he continued to make big plays on both ends of the floor, coming up with a huge chasedown block on Jamal Murray before hitting a step-back jumper with 12 seconds to go to seal the Blazers' win. His performance was even more impressive considering Damian Lillard struggled for much of the night. Though he did make some big plays down the stretch as well, Lillard only scored 13 points in the game, shooting 3-of-17 from the field. Blazers' role players step up With Damian Lillard mired in his worst shooting performance of the postseason, the Trail Blazers needed other players to step up. McCollum was up for the task, but even he couldn't do it alone. The good news for Portland was that Evan Turner and Zach Collins had come to play as well. Turner has taken plenty of ridicule for failing to live up to his huge contract, but the man earned his pay in Game 7. Prior to Sunday, Turner had made just three baskets and scored seven points in 140 minutes this postseason -- a stat that seems almost made up, to be honest. But in Game 7, he was everywhere, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one block while also playing solid defense. Most important was that he scored 10 of those points in the fourth quarter to help secure the Trail Blazers' win. As for Collins, he showed why the Blazers are so high on his potential. He gave them some huge minutes in Game 7, finishing with seven points, five rebounds and four blocks in a solid all-around performance. Collins' ability to space the floor while still holding his own against Jokic was vital for the Blazers with Al-Farouq Aminu and Moe Harkless struggling. Nuggets burned by 3s and free throws The Nuggets had a 17-point lead in the second quarter of Game 7, and appeared on their way to the Western Conference finals. But, of course, their season is now over, thanks in large part to their inability to hit two of the biggest shots in basketball: 3-pointers and free throws. After Jokic hit two triples in the opening few minutes of the game, the Nuggets didn't hit a single 3 the rest of the way, missing 17 straight attempts to close the game, an ironic number considering they blew a 17-point lead along the way.