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Michael Porter Jr. sure made his lone basket of Game 5 count.
With the Denver Nuggets up by two points on the Los Angeles Clippers, and just over a minute left, Porter stepped up and drilled a clutch 3-pointer to extend the lead to five points. Behind the shot, the Nuggets pulled out the 111-105 win to bring the Clippers’ series lead to 3-2.
Having trailed by as many as 16 points, the Nuggets cut the deficit down to seven points entering the fourth quarter. Sparked by a 14-2 run, Denver outscored Los Angeles 38-25 in the final period to extend their season to a Game 6, set to be played on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
Porter was scoreless heading into the final period but managed to stay productive on the floor. He hit Nikola Jokic with a lob pass during the Nuggets’ run and would later block a key shot and drain four free throws late to ice the win.
MICHAEL PORTER JR. IS CLUTCH 😳 pic.twitter.com/bGsoIEOFeH
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 12, 2020
The performance by Porter comes after he criticized the coaching staff following Game 4 on Wednesday. Porter scored 15 points in the first half of that game but had just two shot attempts in the second half as the Nuggets lost.
“We kept going to [Nikola Jokic] and [Jamal Murray] and I think they are two amazing players, you can never get mad at that, but I just think to beat that team we got to get more players involved,” Porter said. “We gotta move the ball a little bit better. We can’t be predictable against that team.”
Damian Lillard called out Porter following his comments and said he was wrong for going through the media to air his frustration. Porter said he would talk to the coaching staff ahead of Game 5 regarding the playcalling, though it is unclear if he had that conversation.
Despite his comments on Wednesday, Porter played a key role in the Nuggets winning Game 5 as the team lives to see at least one more game at the Walt Disney World Resort.
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