That layup, …
: “Incredible.”
: “Itap crazy.”
: “A top-5 layup of all time, if you ask me.”
Harris: “I was just hoping I made it, so Coach didn’t get mad at me.”
The Nuggets’ wing guard instead spent most Denver’s Game 1 win in the Western Conference semifinals late Monday night driving Portland fans straight up a stinking wall. And on two viral plays in particular:
• With 1:23 left in the third period and Denver clinging to an 87-80 cushion, stopped at the free-throw line and found Harris cutting left to right across the baseline, hitting him with a bounce pass in stride. Harris left Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum eating his dust, took off from the restricted area circle and windmilled the ball with his right hand, a Jordanesque reverse layup that arced high over Portland’s 7-foot center Zach Collins.
“I think it was Collins who came over, so I wanted to finish strong at the rim,” said Harris, who finished with 11 points, five boards, two assists and two blocks to help power the hosts to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. “He’s 7-foot. I was able to double-clutch and I saw () cut and I was going to pass it to Mase. But then I just tried to flick it up there.”
• With the Nuggets rocking a 119-110 lead with 1:52 left, Portland sharpshooter Damian “Dame” Lillard set up for a 27-footer at the top of the arc, a carbon copy of the late-game daggers that the Blazers used to send Oklahoma City home in Round 1.
Only Harris closed from behind like a free safety and swatted the ball from the Blazers’ All-Star as he was in his forward motion — a clean and critical block, all ball.
“I just wanted to give a real good contest,” Harris said. “I saw an opportunity and I took it.”
That block, Gary Harris …
“I mean, he still had 39 points,” Harris said of Lillard, whose scoring line was buoyed by 11 free-throw makes. “So we still have to do better. And I think we will. We’ve just got to continue to stay locked in, continue to come back (Tuesday), be ready, look at the film and just see where the (the defense) can get better.”
But if a near-40-point night could ever look, well, quiet, it was Lillard’s Game 1. The 6-foot-3 point guard, who’d sent Twitter into a tizzy when he waved the Thunder good-bye, connected on 12 of 21 attempts from the floor and only 4 of 12 from beyond the arc.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone opened the contest with 6-7 Denver defensive specialist guarding Dame and had the 6-4 Harris tasked with shadowing Lillard’s backcourt partner, 6-3 wing McCollum. After a fast start, the Portland off-guard was a complete non-factor in the second half: 2-for-6 from the floor, 0-for-3 from beyond the arc with four points in 20 minutes, combined in the third and fourth periods.
“I mean, we just wanted to be more aggressive defensively all the way around,” Harris said of defending McCollum, who was 7 of 17 from the floor and whiffed on five of his seven 3-point tries. “Ty didn’t feel us at all in the first half. Everybody was too comfortable. So I feel like we picked it up.”
Toughened up, too.
“Just being physical, letting them feel us,” Harris said of the hosts’ second-half intensity. “Getting into the ball. Our bigs talking out, being able to screen. Just staying locked in, mentally and physically.”
Lillard and McCollum, the Blazers’ double barrels from long distance who’d averaged 8.6 3-point makes against the Thunder, combined to finish with only six treys makes on 19 attempts (.316). Not quite as aesthetically pleasing as a reverse layup over a 7-footer, but beautiful nonetheless.
“I did see (the reverse),” Harris admitted later. “Itap all right. Yeah. It was cool.”
Cooler moment: The layup? Or the block on Dame?
“T win,” Harris replied. “For sure.”
