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The Denver Nuggets are playing playoff-caliber basketball. One more win and they’ll be doing it for real.

Facing elimination and an 11-point deficit midway through the third quarter Monday night Steelers Game Jerseys , the Nuggets rallied past the Portland Trail Blazers 88-82 for their sixth consecutive victory.

”That was another playoff game. That was just tough, physical for 48 minutes,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

One more win Wednesday night at Minnesota and the Nuggets will end a five-year playoff drought.

The Trail Blazers have lost four straight but still harbor hopes of clinching the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

”At the end of the day this team is going to make a shot. I’m not worried about that,” said Jusuf Nurkic, who had 20 points and 19 rebounds. ”We have one more at home (against Utah) and it’s probably going to be for the third spot. We’re going to fight for that.”

The Nuggets kept their season alive thanks to Nikola Jokic’s 10th triple-double of the season and a stifling defense on a night their starters made just 22 of 61 shots.

”I told them at halftime, I was honest, I said, `Fellas, if we lose, we’re out.’ I knew some of these other teams had won games. And I felt we played like our lives were on the line,” Malone said. ”It wasn’t pretty, but I thought our defense was phenomenal.”

The Trail Blazers scored 25 points off 18 offensive rebounds but managed only one bucket and two offensive boards in the fourth quarter, when they were held to 13 points.

Jokic scored 15 points, pulled down a season-best 20 rebounds and had 11 assists. Will Barton added 22 points, leading a comeback from an 11-point third-quarter deficit.

”It was a playoff tuneup,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. ”Both teams competed at a high level. I was proud of the way we defended, especially when you’re having trouble making shots. I’m actually encouraged by the way we played, the way we fought. If we get those looks most of the time we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

Damian Lillard led Portland with 25 points.

Jokic secured his 16th career triple-double when he fed Devin Harris for a 3-pointer that put the Nuggets ahead 73-71 with eight minutes left, their first lead of the second half.

They didn’t trail again.

The Nuggets’ big win came exactly one year after Russell Westbrook’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave Oklahoma City a 106-105 win at Denver that eliminated the Nuggets from last year’s playoff party.

This time, it was Denver that came up big in the end.

TIP-INS

Trail Blazers: F Ed Davis returned to action after missing four games with a sprained right ankle, and Stotts said the boost he provided was bigger than his 5.4-point and 7.4-rebound averages. ”What he offers on the court is unique, as far as his rebounding Kawann Short Jersey , his screen setting, his finishing around the paint, all those things,” Stotts said. ”His presence in the locker room, his presence on the bench. Just the intangibles. He’s been a very integral part of what we’ve done this year.”

Nuggets: Malone said he decided to bring Gary Harris off the bench rather than start him because he didn’t want to mess with the chemistry the Nuggets had developed while going 7-4 in his absence. … Barton had averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists while starting in Harris’ place the previous 11 games.

TECHNICAL SPARK: Malone drew a technical for arguing a no-foul call when Jamal Murray went down hard with 6:18 left in the third quarter and the Nuggets trailing 62-53.

The Nuggets outscored Portland 35-20 afterward.

”Coaches are funny that way,” Devin Harris said. ”I thought it was the right thing to do. Obviously, I thought Jamal got fouled. But he used it to kind of fire us up and we needed a little bit of an energy pick-up right there and I thought Coach gave it to us.”

NO HELP:

The teams ahead of Denver in the playoff race haven’t done the Nuggets any favors. A loss to Portland would have eliminated the Nuggets from playoff contention because the Spurs, Timberwolves, Thunder and Pelicans all won Monday night.

They won’t be watching the scoreboard Wednesday night, either.

”We can’t anticipate them helping us,” Devin Harris said. ”We dug ourselves into this hole; we’ve got to dig ourselves out.”

”We wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Gary Harris, who returned from an 11-game absence with 12 points. ”If we win we’re in.”

UP NEXT

Trail Blazers: Play Utah at home Wednesday night in their regular season finale.

Nuggets: Can end their playoff drought with a win at Minnesota on Wednesday night.

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Houston Texans star J.J. Watt said Monday that he has distributed the $41.6 million his foundation raised to help rebuild the Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Harvey.

An online fundraiser Watt launched after the storm hit Texas last year went viral and far exceeded his original goal of raising $200,000.

"It's incredible to see just the generosity of strangers and what it's able to do and what it's able to accomplish, and the fact that that's just year one," Watt said. "We still have more to do and we still have a lot going on moving forward."

Watt routed the money to eight groups actively involved in Texas' rebuilding and recovery. According to the Texans, the funds have already been used to clean up and rebuild more than 600 homes, distribute more than 26 million meals and provide health care to more than 6,500 people.

The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has dealt with serious injuries in each of the last two seasons, playing just eight games combined in 2016-17, though he's back and healthy now. He said working on this project and seeing how people came together to help others in such a huge time of need was good for him.

"As you look back on it Authentic Harrison Smith Jersey , you really understand how incredible it really was and how thankful that I am for so many people to help out and to be willing to help out," Watt said. "I was going through some tough times myself the last two years, so I think that it really helped show me the good side of people and that I should have hope and ... have positivity."

Houston coach Bill O'Brien said he spoke to the team Monday about the impact Watt's fundraiser had on the community, and he raved about his superstar defensive end.

"I don't even know if words can describe that, what he's meant to the city of Houston, everything that he's done," O'Brien said. "He was hands-on with it. He's been hands-on with how to distribute the money, where it goes, all those things. We have a great deal of respect for what he's done, and I know the city does, too."

Watt, who is entering his eighth NFL season, talked about how moved he was that everyone from celebrities to children with lemonade stands helped raise funds to help the victims of the storm, which made landfall last Aug. 25 and left torrential flooding in its wake. He said he felt a lot of pressure to make sure the money was used to make the biggest impact in areas where it was needed most.

"Obviously, I wasn't planning on being in such a wild situation from the start, but I had an incredible support team around me and I had tons of people help me out," he said. "We did loads and loads of research and we spent hours and hours doing the phone calls and the meetings and talking with everybody and gathering as much information as we could, so we could do it the right way."

"Because that's the only thing that we wanted out of all of it 鈥?we wanted to do it the right way and make sure that we did proud to people who trusted us," Watt said.
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