Nuggets...

said. “Yes we played a four-overtime game, it was exhausting, but we won tonight so the last game doesn’t really matter.”

Denver outscored the Blazers 27-14 in the third quarter to take an 84-77 lead into the fourth. Malik Beasley kicked off the final period with a 3pointer for the Nuggets.

Rodney Hood’s 3pointer got the Blazers within 110-107 with 52 seconds left and Lillard’s layup got the Blazers even closer at 112-110 with 7.7 seconds to go.

But Murray’s free throws gave Denver a four-point lead. Mccollum hit a long jumper that after a video replay was ruled a 2 and Denver prevailed. “It is disappointing. You go up 3-1 and you have a lot of momentum and obviously that would be a great position to be in. But they’re a good team, they came out and played well,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “We had a bad third quarter and that kind of made the difference. We made a good comeback, but now it’s a three-game series.”

Jokic played 65 minutes in the quadruple-overtime loss, the fourth-most minutes in NBA playoff history and just two short of the record. Mccollum led the Blazers with 60 minutes.

Fatigue was more of a concern for the secondseeded Nuggets, who had just one day off after their seven-game, first-round series against San Antonio. The Blazers dispatched of first-round opponent Oklahoma City in five games, clinching their first trip to the conference semifinals since 2016 on Lillard’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Enes Kanter started for Portland despite ongoing concerns about his left shoulder, which he injured in Game 5 against the Thunder. He and Jokic have been physical adversaries through the first three games, and Kanter said after Friday’s game that the shoulder separation was worse and wasn’t sure he could play./ap