PORTLAND, Ore. — After 68 grueling, physical, exhausting and exhilarating minutes of playoff basketball, the Portland Trail Blazers finally walked off the Moda Center court as Game 3 victors, beating the Denver Nuggets 140-137 in quadruple overtime late Friday night.
It was another unbelievable moment in an unbelievable season for the Blazers. Portland now leads the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series against Denver two games to one. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts may have summed it up best after the game.
"It was a hell of a game," he said.
"I've never been involved in a game like that, regular season or playoffs. It was an amazing effort by both teams."
BOX SCORE: Trail Blazers 140, Nuggets 137, 4OT
It was only the second quadruple-overtime playoff game in NBA history, the first since 1953 when the Boston Celtics bested the Syracuse Nationals, 111-105.
The numbers in the game are staggering. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic played 65 minutes, finishing with 33 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists. Only three players in NBA history have played more minutes in a postseason game. Only one other Denver player played more than 50 minutes. That was Jamal Murray, who had a playoff career-high 34 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists in 55 minutes. Gary Harris (49 minutes) and Paul Millsap (48 minutes) nearly reached the 50-minute threshold.
The Blazers had three players play 55 minutes or more, including Enes Kanter, who despite playing through a painful shoulder injury, had 18 points and 15 rebounds in 56 minutes. CJ McCollum scored a game-high 41 points in 60 minutes, tying the highest-scoring playoff game of his career, and Damian Lillard had 28 points and eight assists in 58 minutes.
"It was two teams fighting for their season," Lillard said. "Nobody said it was going to be pretty. Nobody said it was going to be easy. The team that was willing to go a little bit deeper was going to win the game. ... We got it done."
Maurice Harkless, who was questionable to play with a sprained right ankle just hours before Game 3, gutted out 45 minutes and finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
"I live for moments like this. This is what I work for," Harkless said after the game. "This is what I work for all summer. This is what I work my whole life to get to this point. To be out there and to be able to play. Like I said, with one ankle or two, leave everything all on the floor.
"Coach trusted me tonight to be out there and he kept asking me if I was OK. I kept saying, 'Yeah.' He kept rolling with me, and it worked out in the end."
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Blazers beat Nuggets in instant classic
Lillard spoke after the game about Kanter and Harkless, who are playing big minutes and positively impacting the game, even when in pain.
"Those guys know how important they are to our team, so the fact that they're out there playing through injuries, it just shows how tough they are for one, and it also shows how bad they want it, how much they're invested into our team, how much they care," Lillard said.
"Enes, what he's done out there since Nurk went down has been great, changed our season. We don't have anybody else on our team capable of the things that Moe is capable of. He'd be out there, basically on one leg, coming up with those big rebounds, in the paint getting us extra possessions, finishing around the rim, deflections, chasing small guards around, playing through screens. For him to be doing that and knowing that he's doing it through an injury, I think it just shows his commitment to the team and how bad he wants it. Same with Enes," Lillard said.
McCollum not only led the Blazers in minutes and points, he also found Rodney Hood alone in the corner for a 3-pointer that put the Blazers ahead 138-136 with 18.6 seconds left in the fourth overtime, a lead Portland wouldn't relinquish.
According to Hood, he called the shot when he was sitting on the bench, waiting for a chance to go back into the game that only came when Harkless had to sit with cramps early in the fourth overtime.
"I was telling Gary Trent [Jr.] that if I got a chance, I was going to make it," Hood said. He was asked where the go-ahead 3-pointer in Friday's game ranks in his career.
"It's up there. It's one of the biggest moments, and obviously it's the playoffs. I've hit game winners and big shots before, but this one means a lot."
Hood, as he has been all series, was phenomenal Friday night. He finished with 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-3 from the 3-point line, in 23 minutes off the bench. He's reached double figures in three consecutive playoff games for the first time in his career, and is the Blazers' fourth-leading scorer in this series, averaging 17 points on 55.2% shooting from the field and 53.8% from the 3-point line.
The postseason hasn't always been so kind to Hood, especially last season during Cleveland's run to the NBA Finals, when he fell out of the rotation. Hood said his role in Portland, and his success in this series, means a lot to him.
"I stayed patient. I didn't get down on myself [last season] even when a lot of people did," he said. "Trusting God, I didn't give up on myself. I just kept playing, kept working. I had no idea I'd end up in Portland in this type of situation, but to be here and to have my family in the crowd ... is very emotional for me, to be quite frank."
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Jared Cowley writes about the Trail Blazers and other topics for KGW.com. He's also the co-host of the 3-on-3 Blazers podcast (listen here). You can reach him on Twitter @jaredcowley.
Reporter notebook
KGW's Orlando Sanchez and Jared Cowley were at the Moda Center to cover Game 3. Relive the game with postgame interviews and social media updates from KGW's Orlando Sanchez and Jared Cowley from before, during and after the game.
Postgame interviews
COMPLETE POSTGAME INTERVIEWS