Portland (USA), .- The Bosnian pivot Jusuf Nurkic before suffering a serious injury to the left leg contributed a double-double of 32 points and 16 rebounds that left him as the outstanding leader of the Portland Trail Blazers who won in double extension by 148-114 to the Brooklyn Nets and remain fourth in the Western Conference.
Nurkic was injured at the time of the second overtime, when he tried to capture an offensive rebound and when his leg fell he was violently twisted to lie on the floor of the Fashion Center in Portland, the field of the Trail Blazers.
At first the players of both teams, including base D’Angelo Russell, of the Nets, along with the forward Jared Dudley approached Nurkic to see if they could help him, but when they saw that he had a bone outside they left running in shock.
While immediately came the services of medical personnel to immobilize his leg and removed from the field on a stretcher with partners of both teams at his side.
Nurkic had scored a basket for the partial of 134-132 and 3:40 minutes for the second extra play, which would be the advantage they would keep the rest of the way.
Without the tall men of the Nets in the field, the pivots Jarrett Allen and Ed Davis, both eliminated by personal fouls, Nurkic had become the great advantage of the Trail Blazers in the indoor game, especially in the capture of rebounds.
Despite Nurkic’s absence in the end, the Trail Blazers found their way to victory and secured a pass to the playoffs.
Although now they will have to rethink the future of the team facing the playoffs with the loss for the remainder of the season of his best man in the paint in what has been his best work since he came to the NBA and the Trail Blazers that they received it when closing transfer with the Denver Nuggets.
In addition to the loss of 24-year-old Nurkic, the Trail Blazers (46-27) also have the loss of guard CJ McCollum, their second-best scorer.
Base Damian Lillard with a double-double of 31 points and 12 assists was also decisive in the victory of the Trail Blazers, who are fourth in the Western Conference.
Reserve backup seth curry emerged as the surprise factor and sixth player of the Trail Blazers by contributing 20 points, including three triples of seven attempts, and guard Rodney Hood also scored 18 points.
While the reserve center, the Swiss Turk Enes Kanter, who will probably occupy the title post left vacant by Nurkic, did a great job in painting by providing a double-double of 12 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Russell finished again as leader of the Nets to bring 39 points, nine rebounds and eight assists that did not prevent the defeat of the Brooklyn team, who saw a broken streak of two consecutive wins.
The Nets finished with seven players who had double-digit numbers, including reserve base and sixth player, Spencer Dinwiddie, who contributed 22 points, with three three-pointers.
The Brooklyn team, with a 38-37 mark, ranks seventh in the Eastern Conference, tied with the Detroit Pistons, who had a rest day, and a game ahead of the Miami Heat (36-37), They did not play either, and they occupy the eighth and last place with the right to be in the playoffs. (EFE)
