Nurkic scores 29 as Blazers prevail over Nets
LOS ANGELES: Jusuf Nurkic delivered 29 points and 15 rebounds en route to his ifth double-double of the NBA season as the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Brooklyn Nets 127-125 on Friday.
The 23-year-old Bosnian center shot 12-of-19 from the field but more importantly came up clutch in the final moments by producing the tiebreaking three-point play with 27 seconds left under the basket.
“I learn to never quit, and there’s no lost possession until the game is done,” Nurkic said. “We’re going to fight. I saw an opportunity to get the ball and try to make a play and it went in.” No play was as significant as what took place with regulation time winding down in a 123-123 game.
With 30.6 seconds remaining, Nurkic drove to the basket but was blocked by Demarre Carroll. Brooklyn’s Caris Levert grabbed the rebound on a mad scramble under the rim with 28 seconds left but lost the ball to Nurkic, who then finished off a reverse layup for a 125-123 lead while being fouled by Spencer Dinwiddie.
“It was good to see that type of passion and that energy,” teammate Damian Lillard said. “After the game, he was telling me, ‘my bad, I missed the free throws, I did this, I did that’.”
“I stopped him in the hallway (and said) ‘I don’t care about none of that. The most important thing is you made the biggest play of the game’.” Lillard said his team “could have easily been up against it” but for Nurkic’s “making the winning play and staying with it. When you do things like that, you give yourself a chance.” Nurkic then made the foul shot for a 126-123 lead and the Blazers held on for the victory.