Jusuf Nurkić got the terrible news as Trail Blazers’ team bus made its way from the Yacht Club Hotel to the The Field House on the ESPN Wide World of Sports campus for Saturday’s Western Conference Play-In versus the Memphis Grizzlies. After struggling for weeks with COVID-19, Nurkić’s grandmother, Hana, had succumbed to the virus.
The 7-0 center had contemplated leaving Orlando to be by her side when he first heard a few weeks ago that she was fighting the virus from a hospital bed in Bosnia & Herzegovina. And upon receiving the news that her fight was over, he questioned whether it was right for him to suit up and play. If it had been his call, he would have sat out due to the heartbreak, even with a spot in the postseason hanging in the balance.
But according to Nurkić, that decision wasn’t his to make.
“I didn’t want to play,” said Nurkić. “She made me play, I guess. Personally, I thought I’m not going to play tonight... I already came to all those decisions to stay here and be with the team, so might as well. I think she want me to play.”
If she was watching, she certainly must have been pleased with what she saw.
Nurkić finished with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 21 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks as the 8-seed Trail Blazers defeated the 9-seed Grizzlies 126-122 in the Western Conference Play-In Saturday afternoon at the Walt Disney World Resort outside of Orlando.
“Obviously it’s emotional, I couldn’t be more proud of (Nurkić),” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “It’s very difficult, this has been hanging over his head for a while. There was never talk of not playing, but I just think you could tell it was on his mind.”
With the win, the Trail Blazers advance to the 2020 Playoffs where they’ll face the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1-8 matchup. It is the seventh consecutive season that the Trail Blazers have made the postseason.
“Such an unusual situation,” said Stotts. “I told the team afterward what we’ve done in these two weeks is really special. I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys because we were up against it every game, nine-straight games where our season was basically in the balance. They hung together, they fought together, they found a way. I think the circumstances of getting in this year, in the middle of a pandemic in a bubble, this was special.”
And it would take a special performance from Nurkić, who has averaged 31.6 minutes over the course of eight seedings games in Orlando after missing the previous 16 months due to suffering multiple compound fractures in his left leg, to get the win Saturday versus a young Grizzlies team with fresh legs, or at least fresher than Portland’s. The 7-0 Bosnian, playing against the likes of Jonas Valanciunas, Gorgui Dieng and Brandon Clarke, was able to find his touch, both inside and outside the paint, going 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-3 from three for 15-first half points to go with 17 rebounds.
“I think (Nurkić) was amazing,” said Damian Lillard. “I think that was a special performance by him to be dealing with his grandmother passing. To be able to come out there and have that type of effort and to be that focused on a basketball game when he had something so much more important on his mind and on his heart, I think that just speaks volumes of his character and who he is and how much it means to him to be back out there, to be a part of this team. To be shouldering that and then come out there and -- I don’t know how many rebounds he had -- but too make all the plays he made and to still be able to produce at that level given his situation was just special. It was amazing.”
Behind Nurkić stellar first-half performance, the Trail Blazers went up by as many as 16 points in the first quarter before the Grizzlies rallied in the second quarter to cut the advantage to 58-52 by the halftime intermission.
Portland struggled in the third quarter, as they have all season for reasons no one can seem to surmise, allowing a 12-2 run that gave the Grizzlies a 79-76 lead with 5:15 to play in the quarter. Memphis would eventually outscore Portland by 10 in the quarter to take a 94-89 lead into the fourth.
The Grizzlies extended their lead to eight early in the fourth, and from there, some might have begun to wonder if a second game on Sunday would be necessary, which would have been detrimental not only to Portland’s ability to qualify for the playoffs, but to what they’d be able to accomplish even if they managed to secure the eight-seed.
“We knew that Memphis was going to be a desperate team, but I think we had that same desperation because of how important having Sunday off (is),” said Stotts. “Playing a back-to-back with one day of rest and getting ready for the Lakers would have been a tough task.”
With the potential of missing out on the postseason, the Trail Blazers dug deep midway through the fourth, getting a few timely steals and a three-pointer from Gary Trent Jr., an and-1 from Nurkić , and two threes and a mid-range jumper from CJ McCollum in the midst of a 15-4 run that gave Portland a 119-113 lead with 1:21 to play.
After a made Ja Morant bucket and a Grayson Allen free throw, Carmelo Anthony, who had struggled from the field the entire game, made a clutch corner three, something he’s done in just about every Trail Blazers win during the restart, to give Portland a 122-116 lead with 21 seconds to play. Dillon Brooks answered with a three of his own, but with time running out, the Grizzlies were forced to intentionally foul Trent Jr, Anthony and Nurkić in the final 10 seconds, with the final free throw to seal the win coming from the center.
“Obviously down the stretch (McCollum) made the big plays offensively,” said Stotts. “To win in this league you need more than one guy to carry you. When you have Dame and Nurk and CJ and then throw Melo (Anthony) in there, that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been able to score and have a good offense here in the bubble.”
Three other Trail Blazers joined Nurkić as double-figure scorers Saturday afternoon.
Lillard had a quiet game by his recent standards, scoring just 31 points to go with 10 assists, two rebonds and a steal in 45 minutes. McCollum, playing with a fracture in his spine, went 11-of-19 fro the field to finish with 29 points, with 19 of those coming in the second half.
Anthony shot just 5-of-15 from the field but also went 10-of-10 from the free throw line to finish with 21 points in 38 minutes.
The Grizzlies were led by 35 points and eight assists for Ja Morant. Valanciunas had a double-double of 22 points, 17 rebounds and both Brooks and Clarke finished with 20 points.
With the regular season now over, the Trail Blazers now face the daunting task of taking on the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2020 Western Conference Playoffs. Tipoff for Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m.