Damian Lillard scores 55 points, but Portland Trail Blazers fall to Denver Nuggets in double overtime: Game 5 rewind

Damian Lillard told his Portland Trail Blazers teammates the day before Game 5 at Denver that with the series tied at 2-2, “this is the one.”

Lillard figured the Blazers would likely face adversity during Game 5. To win, he figured they would have to answer something they failed to do in Games 2 and 3, both losses. That wouldn’t do in such a pivotal game in this first-round series.

As it turned out, the Blazers faced major adversity from the start, falling behind by as much as 22 in the first half. They did answer the call, forcing two overtime periods thanks to several dramatic deep threes from Damian Lillard.

But in the end, the Blazers failed to close out by far the most entertaining game of the series and lost 147-140 in double overtime after Lillard’s magic ran out.

The Blazers now trail 3-2 in the series as it heads back to Portland for Game 6 at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Lillard scored became the first player in NBA playoff history to have 55 points and 10 assists. He shot 17 of 24 from the field and made an NBA playoff-record 12 threes on 17 attempts to lead the Blazers. He also had six rebounds and three blocks.

“He did everything that he could,” Robert Covington said.

Lillard’s step-back three in the final seconds of regulation sent the game into overtime at 121-121.

There, Portland fell behind 132-123 with 2:16 remaining after Austin Rivers hit a three for Denver. But Lillard made three deep threes, with the final one tying the game at 135-135 with 6.6 seconds left.

In the second overtime, the Nuggets did a better job of getting the ball out of Lillard’s hands by throwing double teams at him.

“We’re all disappointed,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said of the loss despite Lillard’s special performance. “So, I have empathy for Dame, I have empathy for everybody on our team. But now’s not the time for empathy. Now is the time to regroup and come back and get Game 6.”

Nikola Jokic led Denver with 38 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Defending him became problematic, with Jusuf Nurkic fighting foul trouble in the second half and eventually fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Given how the game began, it was a minor miracle that the Blazers had a chance to pull out the win.

The Blazers missed their first eight shots and were down 14-1 before Norman Powell scored on a layup with 6:55 on the clock. The Blazers settled in and got their offense going enough to trail just 38-25 at the end of the first quarter. Denver made 7 of 13 threes in the quarter, compared with 2 of 7 for the Blazers.

Denver took off again in the second quarter and led 59-39 with 6:14 to go in the half. From that point on, though, the Blazers dominated, outscoring the Nuggets 23-6 the rest of the quarter to trail just 65-62 at halftime.

Nurkic picked up his fourth foul with 8:20 to go in the third quarter after posting up on Jokic and backing into him hard enough to be called for an offensive foul. When Nurkic is out of the game, that usually means doom for the Blazers in this series, but not in this case. Portland trailed 69-67 when he went out and ended up grabbing its first lead of the game at 83-82 when Lillard made a technical free throw at the 4:05 mark.

Portland led 94-92 heading into the fourth quarter.

The teams went back and forth until Denver began to pull away and led 105-98 with 7:32 remaining. But the Blazers came back with a three from Lillard, followed by two-point baskets from Covington and CJ McCollum to tie the game at 105-105.

Nurkic picked up his fifth foul while setting a screen against Austin Rivers. Seconds later, Nurkic fouled out while preventing Aaron Gordon to dunk at the other end with four minutes remaining.

Gordon missed both free throws, leaving Denver with a 110-108 lead. Carmelo Anthony then committed a turnover and at the other end, Rivers hit a three off of an assist from Jokic and the Nuggets led 113-105 with 3:31 to go.

When Jokic hit two free throws to give Denver a 119-115 lead with 52.1 seconds left, the Blazers seemed to be in trouble. But after an Anthony miss, Lillard stripped Rivers of the ball, went downcourt, and found McCollum open on the left side. He made the three to reduce the Blazers’ deficit to 119-118.

Down 121-118 with 9.8 seconds to go, the Blazers went to Lillard. He went one-on-one with the 6-foot-10 Michael Porter Jr. and hit a step-back three to tie the game and send it into overtime at 121-121.

There, the Blazers could never take control.

“When you’re on another team’s floor and you get that extra period, you got to come out strong, you got to come out sharp and try to jump out ahead of it so you can almost play with the lead,” Lillard said. “Because the energy is behind them. The crowd is behind them. And, most teams get the benefit of the doubt at home.”

SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT

Lillard was amazing to be sure. While putting up the 55, 10 and six he committed just one turnover.

Covington had 19 points and 11 rebounds. He made 3 of 6 threes.

The Denver bench provided 48 points compared to 22 for the Blazers. Nuggets guard Monte Morris scored 28 off the bench.

SHOWED UP AND FIZZLED

The Blazers not named Lillard combined for 13 turnovers. The rest of the team also went 1 of 14 in the two overtime periods. Kanter scored the lone field goal.

Anthony hit on just 3 of 11 shots and 2 of 9 threes to finish with eight points.

McCollum finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists but he shot just 7 of 22 from the field and went 2 of 8 on threes.

Nurkic, in addition to fouling out for the third time in this series, committed six turnovers. Three came on offensive fouls. He did have 13 points and 11 rebounds.

SERIES SCHEDULE (Denver leads 3-2)

Game 1: Portland 123, DENVER 109

Game 2: DENVER 128, Portland 109

Game 3: Denver 120, PORTLAND 115

Game 4: PORTLAND 115, Denver 95

Game 5: DENVER 147, Portland 140, 2OT (Nuggets lead 3-2).

Game 6: Thursday, June 3, in Portland, 5 p.m. (TV on NBCSNW, TNT)

Game 7: Saturday, June 5, at Denver, time TBD (if necessary)

-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).

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