Damian Lillard scored 34 points and led Portland’s 3-point barrage that sparked the Trail Blazers’ 123-109 win over the Denver Nuggets in the opener of their first-round playoff series Saturday night.
Damian Lillard scored 34 points and led Portland’s 3-point barrage that sparked the Trail Blazers’ 123-109 win over the undermanned Denver Nuggets in the opener of their first-round playoff series Saturday night.
The Blazers hit 19 of 40 shots from beyond the arc, and Lillard, sporting silver sneakers that were a fitting choice for his sterling performance, had five of them.
Subs Carmelo Anthony and Anfernee Simons added four each as the Blazers outscored Denver by 24 points from beyond the arc.
“Look, we’re a 3-point shooting team,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “Got 40 3s up. I thought for the most part, they were good looks. To be honest, I think we could’ve shot the ball even better.”
They were plenty good on this night.
“I talked about it quite a lot during the week, can we guard the 3-point line?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Too many breakdowns. To win a playoff game, especially when you’re undermanned, you have to be on point with everything. You can have great discipline, and we didn’t have it.”
