The Portland Trail Blazers returned home with a chance to take a 2-1 lead over the Denver Nuggets in their first-round series. Instead, the Blazers faltered after a hot start and suffered a 120-115 defeat to fall behind in the series.
Blazers star Damian Lillard was hot about the officiating after the game. While Lillard didn't want to blame the loss on the refs, he basically blamed the loss on the refs:
Dame: "I'm not saying that's the reason I lost, I'm saying when they shoot that well and we fight and claw back into the game and everything we do is a foul, it's tough."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) May 28, 2021
Portland racked up 24 fouls for the game compared to 18 for Denver, resulting in a 27-13 disparity in free-throw attempts. Lillard surely wasn't expecting to see those kinds of numbers while playing on his home court in a playoff game.
Jusuf Nurkic fouled out in 32 minutes of action, which really hurt the Blazers' chances. The center had 13 points, 13 rebounds and six assists while posting a plus-9. That means Portland was outscored by 14 points in his 16 minutes off the court. Enes Kanter was a minus-15 in just six minutes, and Terry Stotts went very small with a frontcourt of Robert Covington and Carmelo Anthony to close the game.
That's not exactly ideal against Nikola Jokic, who secured the game in the final seconds with a tap-in basket after Monte Morris missed a pair of free throws. Jokic had a monster game with 36 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes.
Lillard himself did all he could to keep the Blazers in the game. He poured in a game-high 37 points on 15-of-31 shooting. However, the fact that he only took two free throws probably also contributed to his displeasure with the officiating.
Lillard and the Blazers will have to regroup for what basically amounts to a must-win Game 4. Losing both games at home and going down 3-1 would put Portland in a deep hole that would be extremely difficult to climb out of. We'll see how the refs call Game 4 after Lillard's rant.
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