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Wednesday, Apr. 19 10:00pm ET
Van Exel completes Nuggets' strong finish | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- While the Portland Trail Blazers couldn't have cared less about losing to Denver, the lowly Nuggets ended their season with jubilation. Nick Van Exel sank a 21-foot jumper with 1.7 seconds left as the Nuggets completed a strong finish by defeating the Trail Blazers 96-95 Wednesday night. "This is great," Van Exel said. "We're so young, and we realize our potential at times when we play the top teams. If we want to get to the next level, we've got to beat those types of teams." Van Exel scored 22 points and hit four 3-pointers, and Antonio McDyess added 22 points to lead the Nuggets, who won their fourth straight and eighth in 13 games after a 1-11 stretch. Bonzi Wells scored nine of his 18 points in the final six minutes to lead the Blazers, but he missed a 23-foot jumper with five seconds left that set up Van Exel's winning shot. "Let the playoffs begin," Brian Grant said, summing up the feelings of the Blazers, who have been locked into the No. 3 seed for some time and will face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. Game 1 is Sunday afternoon and Game 2 is Wednesday night, both at the Rose Garden. The schedule for the rest of the series has yet to be determined. "I don't think it's real disappointing at all," Greg Anthony said of the loss. "What's important is that we really start to focus on a very good Minnesota team." Steve Smith had 15 points and Jermaine O'Neal had a season-high 11 rebounds for the Blazers, who missed a chance to reach 60 wins for just the second time in the franchise's 30-year history. The Blazers finished 63-19 in 1990-91, when they had the NBA's best record yet lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. This season Portland's 59-23 mark trailed only the Lakers' 67-15. Although the game meant virtually nothing to both teams, it was surprisingly close and well-played. The Blazers took an 87-82 lead on Wells' 18-foot jumper with 5:45 to play, but Denver went on an 8-0 run to take a 90-87 lead with 3:23 left. The Blazers went up 95-94 on Wells' free throws with 50.8 seconds left, but that was their last lead. The Blazers had a chance to win with 1.7 seconds left, but Detlef Schrempf's driving shot bounced off the back of the rim. "On our last play, we were either going to Nick in the corner or to McDyess, but Nick got the ball, and when the game's on the line, I'd rather have Van Exel take the shot than anyone in the whole NBA," Nuggets coach Dan Issel said. All the Blazers' starters played at least 20 minutes, with the exception of center Arvydas Sabonis, who spent the night on the injured list with a sore right foot. He is expected to be ready for the playoffs. The last time Denver and Portland played, it was before Christmas, and the Nuggets pulled off a 97-88 home victory to improve to 13-11. The Nuggets fell below .500 in mid-January and kept on falling, but they showed grit the last 3½ weeks of the season, beating playoff-bound teams Portland, Seattle and Utah twice. Denver finished 35-47, its best record since 1995-96 -- the year after Dikembe Mutombo led the Nuggets to their last playoff appearance. "I've seen Houston play well at the end, (and) Dallas continued to play well," Van Exel said. "A lot of teams feel if they have something to fight for in the upcoming season, they're going to keep continuing to play hard. That was shown by our players." Denver made 11 of its first 16 shots and all five 3-pointers in the first quarter, but the Blazers came back from 10 points down to take the lead with a 15-2 run late in the first and early in the second. Game notesThe Blazers finished the season tops in the NBA in field-goal shooting at .469. Minnesota was second at .467. ... The Nuggets made all five of their 3-pointers in the first quarter -- with Van Exel making three -- but went just 1-for-12 the rest of the way. ... Portland had won five of six after an 8-9 stretch. ... The Blazers finished 16-6 on the second night of consecutive games, but they lost their last three. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Denver Clubhouse Portland Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 112 New York 85
Denver 96
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