Austin Rivers, Nikola Jokic lead Denver Nuggets to road win over Portland Trail Blazers in Game 3

May 28—PORTLAND, Ore. — All Austin Rivers needed was a little nudge.

In the Denver Nuggets' 120-115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday at Moda Center, Rivers scored 16 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, including four of his five 3-pointers.

"Prior to that, I felt he was turning down open shots," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "He wasn't shooting the ball. I said to him three or four times, 'Austin, let it go. Let it fly. Shoot the ball when you're open.' Eventually in that fourth quarter, he did, and he made big basket after big basket. "

Rivers started the fourth quarter 1 of 5 from 3-point range and 2 for 8 overall. He appreciated his coach's vote of confidence.

"When you've got your head coach telling you that, I mean, at that point your eyes just light up," Rivers said. "That's the best thing any player can hear is that their coach wants you to shoot the ball. You go out there and shoot with confidence and just keep going. We've definitely got to continue to be aggressive, not just me."

Portland's Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum struggled from 3 over the first three quarters, starting the fourth a combined 4 of 17 from 3 but find their range late, helping the Trail Blazers pull within 3 points in the final seconds. Lillard's fifth and final 3 gave him a game-high 37 points with 13 seconds left. McCollum's third 3-pointer gave him 22 points and cut Denver's lead to three with 3.9 seconds left.

"I thought they made a couple of really tough shots, as Dame and C.J. are known to do, but we talked about going into this series the 3-point line would be a really important factor in determining who wins or loses," Malone said, noting the number of 3s allowed has dropped from 19 in Game 1 to 16 in Game 2 and 14 in Game 3.

Monte Morris missed both of his free throws, but Nikola Jokic completed his 36-point, 11-rebound effort with a put-back that pushed the final margin to five with a second left.

Portland had Denver doubled up, 18-9, in the first five minutes of the game behind hot starts from Lillard and McCollum.

"We have to have a better mindset to start the game in Game 4. We were not ready to play tonight. They came out and punched us in the mouth," Malone said. "I'm proud of our guys because we answered right away. We went on a run of our own, a big run to close out that first quarter to get back in the game, but that cannot be our mindset to start Game 4. We have to come out with a hit-first mentality and play with a lead instead of playing from behind."

The Nuggets would use 3-pointers from Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Morris and JaMychal Green to erase the deficit and take a nine-point lead to the second quarter. The Nuggets would extend the lead to 12 in the second quarter after Michael Porter Jr. hit his second 3-pointer but settled for a five-point halftime lead after Portland's 7-0 spurt in the final 1:12 of the second quarter. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers would both score 20 points in the third quarter and 36 in the fourth. Rivers' late explosion helped give Denver a 2-1 advantage heading into Saturday's Game 4.

"Tonight, was a good night, but it's 2-1," Rivers said. "We have a lot more work to do."

Game 3, however, will go down as the Rivers' best moment as a Nugget so far.

"I couldn't be happier for the kid," Malone said. "I just told the team 'Think about this, the guy was sitting at home for two and a half months, waiting for his phone to ring, and it wasn't ringing. That, to me, is just crazy to even think about. Austin Rivers is a good player. He's played in 45 playoff games prior to this 2021 playoffs. It just worked out for him and us that he's here."