Jamal Murray (34 points), Nikola Jokic (21 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists) and the Nuggets shook off a quadruple-overtime loss to take Game 4 Sunday night in Portland 116-112.
Head coach Mike Malone marvelled at Murray leading all the way for Denver in the win.
CJ McCollum had 29 points and Damian Lillard added 28 for the Trail Blazers, with the series headed back to The Mile High City tied at 2-2.
Per The AP:
“I think it’s not quitting. We have a lot of competitive guys who don’t want to lose. I think we don’t want to lose more than we like to win — which is weird,” Jokic said. “We just didn’t want to have the excuse that we lost because of four overtimes, because we were tired.”
Jamal Murray led all scorers with 34 points and made all 11 free throws for the Nuggets, who handed Portland its first postseason loss at home this season. The series now heads back to Denver for Game 5.
“Our guys are tough. We’re resilient,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I mean, to come in here and win this game 36 hours after losing in four overtimes, speaks to just how tough we are.”
Malone cited regular-season statistics to back up his claims: Denver was 12-1 in the second game of back-to-backs, best in the NBA. The Nuggets were good in close games, too: 13-3 in games decided by three points or less, he said.
“We just said to ourselves, ‘If we win today then the last game doesn’t really matter that much,’” Jokic said. “Yes we played a four-overtime game, it was exhausting, but we won tonight so the last game doesn’t really matter.”
