Seal it with a kiss, indeed!
Trail Blazers big man Jusuf Nurkic blew a little smooch at the camera following a dunk that sealed the deal for Portland in Game 1.
Nurkic on Kiss Cam.#RipCity pic.twitter.com/RCWJHnE3rY
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) August 19, 2020
The Nurkic dunk and kiss with 16. 1 seconds remaining was a perfect combo for the Trail Blazers to finish off the Lakers in Game 1 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs Tuesday night.
Portland was rolling with its size and it worked.
The Blazers defeated the Lakers 100-93.
1-0, Portland.
Along with Damian Lillard's spectacular 4th quarter finish, Portland also had a huge boost from its bigs.
The Bosnian Beast got off to a quick start. He notched a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds in just his first 10 minutes of action as the Blazers took a 36-25 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Nurkic also honored his late grandmother with customized Nike shoes in Game 1 with his grandma's name printed across the side of his foot.
For Grandma ♥️ pic.twitter.com/iiJj8bX2YR
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) August 19, 2020
The Blazers big man found out about the death of his grandmother on the bus ride to the Blazers play-in game against the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday.
Nurkic is now focused on two things:
1. Basketball
2. His grandmother
Pretty much after that night of playing the [play-in] tournament, I [was] just done [with] media, as far as my social media. I'm going to be focused on the games and rest. For me, now it's just basketball [and] my grandma. Obviously, she's not here with me no more, but I think that she'd want me to stay here and play basketball. So I'm going to honor her the rest [of the way] that I can -- play hard out there and try to make the best possible decisions. -- Jusuf Nurkic
The Trail Blazers starting center finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, and one kiss.
Nurkic said he decided to blow a kiss to the camera in the final seconds because he recognized the game was over.
We knew that we were pretty much did the job, so I think by then it was 14, 15 seconds when I dunk it, so it was an interesting play to finish the game. Obviously, we didn't do anything yet, I'm happy the way we finish the game and win the game… I think the biggest take from the Bubble is we know how to close the games. We've been in nine games -- almost every game [we were] in position to… win the game. -- Trail Blazers big man Jusuf Nurkic
It certainly was interesting, Nurk!
But Nurkic doesn't get all of the credit; in fact, Lillard believes that if it weren't for the tremendous effort from backup center Hassan Whiteside, the Blazers wouldn't have been victorious Tuesday night.
[Hassan] was big time and we knew coming into this series, once we got here that they've got a lot of guys that are active in the paint -- JaVale McGee, [Anthony Davis], Dwight [Howard] -- they big in there. So we need our big guys to have a presence in the paint on both ends of the floor… I thought tonight how [Hassan] protected the paint, he blocked shots, he changed shots, he rebounded, he just had a positive impact on the game, I think without him out there tonight -- we don't win this game. We need that type of effort from him. -- Trail Blazers All-Star point guard Damian Lillard
The Blazers did roll with Whiteside and Nurkic on the floor together in spurts, but head coach Terry Stotts made the decision to start Wenyen Gabriel at the four alongside Nurkic as Zach Collins continues to deal with left ankle inflammation.
Despite the success between the pairing of Whiteside and Nurkic, it doesn't sound like Whiteside will get the start moving forward.
"We played the big lineup a lot and I thought that worked well for us," Stotts said postgame. "I think more than anything else we were really locked in on trying to take away some of the things we talked about pregame."
I thought Wenyen was very effective in the starting role. I don't anticipate changing that, but it was good to see that Hassan and Nurk played well together, but I thought Wenyen in the starting lineup of both halves was effective for us. -- Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts
Gabriel, who fought through foul trouble for most of the game, made it tough on Anthony Davis when he touched the ball down low. AD went 8-of-24 from the field for 28 points.
As for Whiteside, he notched five blocks to go along with seven points and eight rebounds in his 26 minutes of work. He also had the only positive plus/minus off the bench for Portland with a plus-13.
Coach Stotts may not be changing his starting lineup, but he was pleased with the twin towers Tuesday.
"[Hassan] had a big impact on the game. He and Nurk together compliment each other. They found ways to be effective at both ends, came up with big blocks, some big rebounds," Stotts said.
Between Lillard being Lillard, who led all scorers with 34 points, along with the bigs' performances, it's crazy to think that the Trail Blazers didn't even play their best basketball after shooting just 39.2 percent as a team from the floor.
And yet, they still came away with the win.
"I'm really happy how we played. Honestly, I think we didn't play our best. I'm happy we got a win," Nurkic said.
Can we now starting saying, ‘dunk on ‘em, kiss on ‘em, Nurk!?"
Okay it's only one game. We'll save that saying for later.
Jusuf Nurkic, Hassan Whiteside show out vs. Lakers... and seal it with a kiss originally appeared on NBC Sports Northwest
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