An absurd late comeback
The Denver Nuggets pulled off one of the wildest recoveries of the season, outlasting the Portland Trail Blazers 137-132 in overtime after a game that went completely off the rails.
Down 16 with a little over eight minutes left, the Nuggets looked done. Portland had the game under control, set the pace and seemed headed for a routine win. Then Denver flipped the switch — first to survival mode, then to full-blown domination.
In a matter of minutes, everything changed.
Nikola Jokic in full MVP mode
You can’t talk about this one without starting with Nikola Jokic’s absurd performance.
The Serbian center posted a monster triple-double: 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists. A stat line that tells you exactly how much he ran the show.
Nikola Jokić 35 PTS, 14 REB, 13 AST, 5 STL, 2 BLK, 15/31 FG, 4/4 FT, 53.4% TS vs Blazers pic.twitter.com/X7g9wV8Uil https://t.co/P18XpRreEA
— Basketball Performances (@NBAPerformances) April 7, 2026
In the fourth quarter, Jokic took over. He scored 10 in the decisive frame and, more importantly, drove a 21-5 run that dragged Denver right back into it.
As ever, the “Joker” controlled the tempo, found teammates and punished every slip-up. Pure theatre.
Portland blows a game it had in hand
For more than three quarters, the Portland Trail Blazers had done the hard part.
Sparked by a brilliant Toumani Camara, who poured in 30 points, and a very solid Deni Avdija with 26, the Blazers built their lead the right way.
The gap stretched to 16 points at 115-99, and it looked locked up. The shot-making was there, with a franchise record from beyond the arc, and the defence held up against Denver’s pressure.
But in the closing stretch, it all started to wobble.
A few sloppy possessions, a drop in intensity and, crucially, an opponent that raised its level — that was enough. The whole thing flipped.
Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray deliver when it mattered
If Jokic was the conductor, he had plenty of help around him.
Aaron Gordon came up huge with 23 points, including a corner three with 1:12 left to tie the game and send a clear message.
Jamal Murray, meanwhile, stayed ice-cold in overtime. He scored 7 of his 20 points in the extra period, stringing together big shots and clutch free throws.
He was the one who finally swung it Denver’s way, before feeding Jokic for the basket that put the game away.
A finish you could hardly watch
The fourth quarter was a street fight.
After Denver’s surge, Deni Avdija put Portland back in front briefly from the line, but the Nuggets weren’t going away.
Gordon levelled it, then put Denver ahead, before Avdija answered to force overtime. Jokic even had a shot to win it at the buzzer… and missed.
Once overtime arrived, though, the momentum was all Denver.
Denver peaking at the right time
With this win, the Denver Nuggets have now strung together nine straight victories, their best run of the season.
They’re now sitting firmly near the top of the Western Conference and looking every bit like real title contenders.
Wins like this, scraped out the hard way, usually tell you plenty about a team’s nerve when it matters.
A brutal one for Portland
For the Portland Trail Blazers, this one will sting for a while.
They had the game, the pace, the shot-making and the control… and then let it slip in the final minutes.
The defeat ends their winning streak and drops them in the Western pecking order, just as every game starts to matter in the play-in race.
The message is simple: Denver doesn’t quit
This game sent a loud warning to the rest of the NBA.
Even trailing by 16 in the fourth quarter, the Denver Nuggets are a team that can turn a game on its head at any point.
With Jokic playing at this level and the group staying sharp in the biggest moments, Denver looks more dangerous than ever as a title threat.
And after a finish like that… good luck trying to breathe easy against them.
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