Jusuf Nurkic got his likeness pasted to the side of the Moda Center this week. Ask any Trail Blazer fan or anyone in the organization, and they’ll tell you he’s earned it. In the short time Nurkic has been on the team he’s breathed new life into the Blazers. He is extremely happy to be here, and it shows on and off the court.

photo courtesy of my phone

Friday night I was able to use my powers of deception and infiltrate the Daimler Family Night at the Moda Center. Daimler being one of the biggest sponsors for the Blazers organization, they get one night a year where their employees and their families have free reign over the arena. Along with being able to take shots on the court, tour the locker room, and have all the licorice rope their sugar crazed offspring can handle, employees get four Trail Blazers players that show up to sign autographs and shake some hands. This year it was Jake Layman, CJ McCollum, Evan Turner, and the Bosnian Beast himself. Nurkic had nothing but bright eyes and smiles for the hundreds of people that lined up for autographs.

One attendee had a video for Nurkic on her phone from a Bosnian woman she works with. In the video, the woman spoke in Bosnian, and told Nurkic how excited and proud she was that he was on the team. Clearly touched by the video, Nurkic made his own video response for the woman in Bosnian. His gratitude seems like it will never run out. Ideally his dominance on the court won’t either.

the rest of the photos courtesy of trailblazers.com

Ok, I’ve swooned enough.

Last night the Blazers took on the Washington Wizards. The Wizards, who were sitting nicely in the eastern conference with a 40-24 record, could’ve given the Blazers a heap of trouble. Their back court duo Bradley Beal and John Wall have a cool 23.2 and 22.8 points per game average between them. Wall also dishes out 10.9 assists per game, making him quite the offensive force. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were certainly gonna have their hands full trying to cinch up the Wizards’ offense.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the opposing team's offense the Blazers had to worry about. After a valiant effort in regulation, it was a controversial, missed out of bonds call, and a jumper from the Wizards' Markieff Morris that cost the Blazers the win in overtime.

The Wizards came out quick and took an early lead. The Blazers did their best to chip away at it. Dame took control and bombed in a couple of his patented long balls, giving the home team the lead. They were able to hold it through the rest of the first quarter.

McCollum led the second quarter off with two buttery, baseline jump shots from either side of the key, a feather-touched floater in the paint, and two threes from the top of the key. The Blazers kept feeding him and he kept ringing the bell. He ended up scoring 17 points in the second. CJ was feeling it, but the Wizards were not. They spent the first three minutes of the quarter with their palms turned up complaining about a string of fouls and turnovers. The momentum they had in the first quarter flatlined, and the Blazers lead reached double digits.

Wall started to push back with a few sprints through the paint and foul shots. He knocked the Blazers’ two digit lead down to one in three minutes. But, it was not to be. The Blazers bit back hard and brought their lead up to 21 before their halftime dismount.

To start the second half, steam was still shooting off of CJ’s finger tips. He brought his already impressive point total up to 30 within the first two minutes. Anytime the Wizards tried to take control, the Blazers would jerk the chain and say no dice.

The Wizards saved most of their energy for the fourth and came out in a fury. Half way through the period the Wizards knocked the Blazers lead down to one. Before they had time to celebrate, Dame and CJ dropped two consecutive threes, and Dame fed Nurkic for a devastating dunk. The crowd erupted.

But, Wall and Beal weren’t having it. They came in like a pair of fire hoses and doused the Blazers fire. They dug in and drained two consecutive threes, and brought their lead up to four with less than two minutes left.

With 23 seconds left in the game, the score was tied and the Wizards had possession. Wall brought the ball up slow. The suspense was palpable. He juked Allen Crabbe off his feet, and took an easy, wide open jumper from the free throw line. Miraculously, it clanged off, and the Blazers were looking at another overtime battle.

Al Farouq Aminu came out with a big three to open the extra period. Otto Porter answered. Dame took a top of the key jumper. Beal answered right back with an identical attempt. Dame tried to keep the Blazers in the game, scoring almost all of the Blazers points in the overtime period.

With less than 20 seconds left in the game the Blazers were up by one and the Wizards had possession. Markieff Morris stepped back, then side stepped his defender and dropped a two point shot leaving 0.4 on clock. It looked like the game was ending with heartbreak. Then the replay hit the Jumbo-tron. When Morris stepped back to ditch his defender, he stepped out of bounds. The crowd went berserk. Multiple Blazers bum rushed the officials to try and figure out what could be done.

For some reason that even the players had trouble figuring out in the locker room post game, the call was not reviewed. The Wizards stole the win.

Rule books were consulted and theories were thrown around by members of the press while we waited for coach Terry Stotts to emerge for his post game press conference. When he finally entered the room you could feel the tension spike.

When asked whether he’d be in favor of referees being given discretionary power late in games to review outcome deciding plays, despite the rule book, Stotts snapped back.

“I’d be in favor of them getting it right in the first place. When two referees are looking at the play, and neither one of them see him step out of bounds? In a game like this you can’t miss that call….We’re in a play-off race. We can’t afford those mistakes.”

Dame had some choice words in the locker room as well.

“They said we can’t review it. I guess that’s the rules, but why do we have all these cameras and all this technology in the arena if we’re not gonna be able to review a play that determines a win or a loss?”

Being the leader that he is, Dame brought it back to inspiration and fighting the good fight.

“It’s a tough loss, but we gotta move forward. We got a game tomorrow. It’s tough to deal with these kind of losses but the beauty of it is we got another one tomorrow.”