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Portland and Denver played only the second four-overtime game in NBA playoff history Friday night, with the host Trail Blazers prevailing 140-137 to take a 2-1 series lead. The other four-overtime game came March 21, 1953, when Boston beat Syracuse 111-105.
some HIGHLIGHTS
• Denver's Nikola Jokic played 64 minutes, 58 seconds, No. 3 all-time for minutes play in a game in NBA history. The record is 69 minutes, set by Seattle's Dale Ellis in a five-OT game against Milwaukee in 1989. Jokic's 65 minutes is an NBA playoff record. He had 33 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists, but missed the front end of a one-and-one with 5.6 seconds left in the fourth overtime. He made his second free throw, which would have tied the score had he made the first.
• Portland's C.J. McCollum played 60 minutes and scored 41 points (18 after regulation). His offensive rebound and pass to Rodney Hood (pictured above) proved decisive. Hood, who came off the bench to score 19 points, buried a go-ahead three-pointer in the closing seconds of the fourth overtime.
• "I was really tired," the Blazers' Damian Lillard said after scoring 28 points in 58 minutes, including two late layups in the fourth OT. "You start to cramp up. We knew that they were going through the same thing. It was a matter of who was going to dig deeper, who was going to fight through and get that one extra rebound, that one extra stop, that one loose ball, make that free throw. Tonight we were that team."
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