PORTLAND, Ore. -- When he stepped out of the locker room on Sunday, Damian Lillard adjusted his crimson vest and navigated the thin corridor in the belly of the Moda Center en route to the podium for his postgame media conference.

The hallway, no more than 10 feet wide, is packed with people postgame -- friends, families, teammates, team employees, agents, reporters -- and that is compounded by the fact that the Denver Nuggets locker room is right next to the podium room. There seems to be a crowd around Lillard anywhere he goes, and even after the game is over, never is a Nugget too far away.

It is an ongoing theme of the series: Damian Lillard just can't seem to get any space.

"I think it's obvious: They're trying to show bodies and make me play in a crowd," Lillard said. "Find the open man, that's what I'm trying to do. Trying to see where the help is coming from, see where the other guy is coming from and make that play. And still just find a way to be aggressive and look for shots. Don't let them turn me into a passive player. I can definitely see them trying to be a little more aggressive and have more bodies around me."

Like anyone else who has an Internet connection or TV, the Nuggets saw the way Lillard tormented the Oklahoma City Thunder in their opening-round series. They saw the logo shots. They saw the dramatic shifts of momentum with each ruthless step-back jumper. They saw the way a single Lillard 3-pointer could feel like a 10-0 run, energizing the crowd and deflating defenders.

In the series against the Thunder, Lillard opened it with a missile from some 32 feet and ended it with one from 37 feet away. Against the Thunder, he went 5-of-5 on 3s from 30 or more feet from the hoop. Against the Nuggets, he is 2-of-5 from 30-plus feet.

"I think they're picking him up pretty high. They need to be open," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "For Dame, an open 3 is a good 3. They are picking him up across half court. They are not giving him a lot of space, so I don't think those same 3s are there."

Nuggets assistant Wes Unseld Jr. has been at the heart of Denver's defensive turnaround this season, and his focus entering the series against the Blazers wasn't too complicated. He saw the things that gave the Thunder problems: Their pickup points were too low, their bigs weren't up enough, and they weren't into the ball enough, which let Lillard reject screens.

"He had a lot of open space in that series, we felt, and that's not a knock on OKC. We just wanted to be a little bit better," Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. "We didn't want him getting 33 a night."

Lillard scored 28 in Game 4, a 116-112 loss that evens the series 2-2, but he shot just 9-of-22 from the field and 2-of-7 from 3. The frustration was obvious for him. He is trying not to press, but the Nuggets are trying to force the ball out of his hands. He is trusting the pass, but the Nuggets want him to pass. He is a scorer; it's what makes him elite. But he also is committed to making the right play and leaning on his teammates. That is what worked in Games 2 and 3, with CJ McCollum, Rodney Hood, Enes Kanter and Maurice Harkless all having big games. Lillard is trying to pick his spots, waiting for the defense to soften.

Lillard's first quarter was brilliant in Game 4, with picture-perfect pocket passes and pinpoint dimes to shooters in the corners as he orchestrated around Denver's attention on him. Lillard lives for the crucial moments, though -- the dagger shots and game-changing plays. The Nuggets are committed to forcing someone else to make them. There hasn't been much of an opportunity for rhythm for Lillard. He started 4-of-14 from the floor and showed signs of frustration as he fought against forcing the issue.

"I think when you see a defense come at you that aggressively, you have to identify what you think they are trying to do and what you think they are trying to do," Lillard said. "Try to make them pay for it. Try to attack them with the pass, maybe the weak side or wherever the help is coming from, attack them there and try to take advantage of it. That way it breaks down, and maybe they go away from it or it softens up because they are paranoid about the other side scoring. Then get more aggressive after that to score the ball.

"If that's not working, then you have to figure it out. Maybe attack, get downhill more and try to draw some contact. Try to make them pay with the pass, and see if it will work out by giving the ball up. If not, you have to stay aggressive."

That mindset seemed to pay off in the fourth quarter, when Lillard scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The opportunities started to show, and he took them. However, he missed three free throws -- very un-Dame Time-like -- including a critical one with 20.3 seconds left that would've cut Denver's lead to one.

Besides Game 1, in which he scored 39 points, Lillard hasn't had that kind of dominant, unstoppable look he had against OKC. Denver guard Jamal Murray was asked what the Nuggets are doing to prevent that, and the whole time Murray answered, Nikola Jokic was scanning the stat sheet in front of him, frowning at it like something didn't add up.

"Brother, he scored 30 points," Jokic said, shaking his head at the questioner.

It was actually 28, and it certainly wasn't the 33 Lillard averaged against OKC that Malone referenced. It goes deeper than this series, too, with the Nuggets holding Lillard to 24.3 points, 40.3 percent from the field and 27.1 percent from 3 in eight games -- regular and postseason combined. Against the rest of the NBA, Lillard averaged 26.5 points on 44.9 percent shooting from the field and 38.2 percent from 3.

"We haven't done anything yet," Malone said with a cautionary tone. "It's a tied series, and we've taken home-court advantage back, but Dame is capable of putting up 40 and 50 in a heartbeat. So by no means do we think that we've figured him out."

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Jamal Murray opened Game 4 driving baseline when he was forced to take a fading, behind-the-basket rainbow shot that floated over the backboard and dropped in.

The guard sealed the game with six clutch free throws in the final 13.2 seconds to help the Denver Nuggets pull off their gutsiest victory of the season with a 116-112 win over the Portland Trail Blazers to even this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals 2-2.

Just more than 40 hours after dropping Game 3 in a grueling, four-overtime marathon that matched the longest in NBA playoff history, the Nuggets returned to the Moda Center determined not to let fatigue decide the outcome of their season. They responded by stealing home-court advantage back as the series shifts to Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday.

"You go down 1-3, we all know how that story ends," Denver coach Michael Malone said. "We never frayed, we stayed together, and I can't speak enough about the resiliency and toughness of our team."

With their brains just as weary as their legs following Friday's 3-hour, 25-minute test of wills, the Nuggets rode Murray and Nikola Jokic to their biggest bounce-back of the season. The duo became only the second pair of teammates to record a triple-double and a 30-point game in back-to-back playoff games since the Lakers' Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did so in 1980 against the Suns, according to Elias Sports Bureau research.

Murray opened the game with his Larry Bird-like, behind-the-basket rainbow trick shot and an emphatic first-quarter dunk over Enes Kanter complete with a scowl to set the tone for Denver. Murray scored 34 points for the second straight game to go with five rebounds and four assists.

After logging 65 minutes in Game 3, Jokic delivered his second consecutive triple-double with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, despite being booed almost every time he touched the ball by Portland fans who thought he has been too physical with Kanter's injured left shoulder.

"We just said to ourselves, if we win today, last game doesn't really matter that much," Jokic said. "Yes, we played four overtimes, it was exhausting. But we want to make the last game not really matter."

Malone gave his team the day off from basketball on Saturday, as he wanted his players to recharge physically and mentally from the 140-137, four-overtime loss on Friday. No film. No shots. Just visits with the training staff if needed.

"For me, I eat good, I watch TV show, I eat good again, sleep," Jokic said. "And to be honest, I didn't think about that game the whole day."

The Nuggets got a scare with 47.9 seconds left when Jokic limped to the bench after getting hit in the side of his right knee. Jokic said his body went numb, but he returned at the end of the game and reported that he's fine.

Most would've expected Jokic's 7-foot, 285-pound body to go numb after he played the most playoff minutes by any NBA player since 1953. But the All-Star center responded with his fourth triple-double of the playoffs, marking the second-most triple-doubles by a player in his first postseason, behind Johnson's five triple-doubles.

Jokic's passing was on display when the game was on the line. He dished four consecutive assists for huge Denver baskets after the Blazers cut the Nuggets' lead to one with 3:26 remaining.

When Damian Lillard (28 points) and CJ McCollum (29 points) got the Blazers within two on three occasions in the final 20 seconds, Murray responded with a pair of free throws each time.

"Free throws [are] my thing," said Murray, who is a career 87.9 percent free throw shooter. "My dad and I do a lot of training free throws, blindfolded. He'll be talking to me just like the crowd is, put pressure on me. Take 1,000 free throws in practice to make one or two. Tonight it ended up being six."

In what is the first postseason for many of the young Nuggets, Denver lost Game 1 in the first round at home and Game 3 and Game 6 at San Antonio. Each time, the team bounced back with what was basically a must-win game against the Spurs.

After the Nuggets' biggest bounce-back yet, guard Gary Harris was asked about the Nuggets' resilience.

"Everybody just learn that word right now?" asked Jokic, standing next to Harris in the locker room.

No one questions the Nuggets' fortitude after they overcame one of the most physically challenging circumstances for a team to face. Not since 1953, when the only other four-overtime playoff game was played, has a team had to rebound from such a physically and mentally gut-wrenching loss.

"I really was confident because in close games this year, we're 13-3, decided by three points or less," Malone said. "We're 12-1 in the second nights of a back-to-back, best record in the NBA."

"To come in here and win this game 36 hours after losing a four-overtime game speaks to just how tough we are."

CHICAGO -- If there is such a thing as a baseball Hollywood script in early May, then the Chicago Cubs have the plot line down: Get off to a bad start -- inviting doubters from all over the game -- then turn things around to the tune of a seven-game winning streak culminating in a three-game sweep of the first-place team.

In pulling that off, the Cubs switched places with the St. Louis Cardinals, and they find themselves on top of the National League Central less than one month after a season-opening 2-7 road trip. The turnaround has been as dramatic as it reads.

"I didn't really anticipate this," manager Joe Maddon said before the Cubs beat the Cardinals 13-5 on Sunday. "I talked about [picking up] one game a week. That's normally how you do it. You don't normally have this quick rebound."

The Cubs just about doubled what Maddon thought was possible, picking up six games in the standings since April 7. How did they do it? This is where Hollywood would want to alter the script. There was no magic formula -- just good, solid baseball.

"Our pitchers have been great," Kris Bryant said. "Our at-bats have been great. Defense. Everything has really been clicking for us. This is the type of baseball that's super fun to be a part of."

Bryant provides a good example of what a stretch of a few bad games means over the course of a long season, for both an individual player and a team. It means little, especially when there's a track record involved, as there is for Bryant and the Cubs. Bryant put the icing on the cake on Sunday, when he hit an eighth-inning grand slam as part of an offensive attack that scored in five of eight innings and saw each starting position player collect at least one hit.

It would be hard to find a player more satisfied with how things are going than Bryant. He started the season slowly, enduring way too much early criticism, but has turned it on of late. Whether the results show or not -- they're starting to -- Bryant has been scorching the ball all over the field.

"I've been feeling really good at the plate," he said. "I feel like I've been hitting the ball so hard."

Bryant credits Maddon with watching old film of his at-bats and noticing a "quieter" hitter, especially during his MVP year in 2016.

"My philosophy of hitting is not to have much movement," Bryant said. "It shows in my swing. It's kind of what I got back to. It's nice to hit the ball hard all over the field."

It's also nice when the pitching can match the hitting. That wasn't the case the first week or so of the season, when the Cubs were walking way too many hitters. That changed after the opening road trip, and if anything has keyed the turnaround, it's a staff that is on fire right now. Since April 8, the Cubs' team ERA is 2.48. The next best in baseball in that time -- the Arizona Diamondbacks -- have a 3.40 mark. Let that sink in. Since the second week of the season, the Cubs are giving up one run fewer per game than the next best pitching staff.

"It starts with the starting pitching," Maddon said. "They've permitted us to get on this roll."

Jose Quintana is the definition of a starting pitcher on a roll. The Cubs have won his past five starts while he has compiled a 1.93 ERA, walking a total of five batters. He's just one of a group of pitchers who were maligned early in the season but have helped the team to the top of the standings.

Just like that, the Cubs have their swagger back, a swagger that comes with having the most regular-season wins in baseball over the past four years and earning four trips to the postseason in that time.

"I'd like to believe we have this inner swagger, always," Maddon said. "We're playing the game with a lot of energy. The pitching has set the tone."

Bryant shook his head when asked if he doubted the team even just a little when it started the season 1-6, 2-7 and 3-8.

"That was just kind of a weird start to the year," he said. "We all knew we had talent in here."

That talent has shown up in a big way. Even before the Sunday night win, the Cubs were the first team in 24 seasons to start the year at least five games under .500 and reach six games over by their 30th contest. A 17-5 stretch has put them seven games over .500 and in first place.

"We really turned it around since then," Bryant said. "Any time you can take three from the team that's in first, of course you're going to feel good about it."

As for that swagger Maddon was taking about, he doesn't care how it's described. He's feeling the same thing a huge Sunday night crowd was feeling as it chanted "sweep, sweep, sweep" in the closing moments of the May blockbuster movie entitled "Cubs take over first place."

"I just like the way we are," Maddon said. "However you want to write that, I like the way we are right now."

London could be the venue for the attempt set for autumn in front of ‘tens of thousands’ of spectators

Eliud Kipchoge has already accomplished more in the marathon than some perhaps ever thought possible.

But now, on the 65th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister’s own piece of barrier-breaking athletics history, it has been confirmed that Kipchoge will again attempt to run a sub-two-hour marathon.

When Bannister ran the world’s first sub-four-minute mile at the Iffley Road track in Oxford on May 6, 1954, it was described as the ‘Everest of athletics’ and a barrier which, like the two-hour marathon, many thought couldn’t be broken.

But Olympic champion Kipchoge came close when he ran 2:00:25 for 26.2 miles at Nike’s specially-created ‘Breaking2’ event in Monza exactly two years ago and now believes he can go even faster.

Since that time trial in Italy, Kenya’s Kipchoge has gone on to break the official marathon world record with his time of 2:01:39 in Berlin last September and recently won his fourth Virgin Money London Marathon title in 2:02:37 for the second-fastest official time in history.

While in the UK for the London event, Kipchoge visited the Iffley Road track and it could be back in the UK that his next sub-two attempt takes place.

Organisers of the attempt have confirmed that it is being planned for late September or early October, which could mean a clash with the IAAF World Championships in Doha taking place from September 27 to October 6, though Sean Ingle of The Guardian has said he understands October 13 is a preferred date for the attempt.

When it comes to the course, options which offer a ‘flat looped circuit’ are said to be being investigated and ‘tens of thousands’ of spectators are expected to attend.

“I learnt a lot from my previous attempt and I truly believe that I can go 26 seconds faster than I did in Monza two years ago,” said Kipchoge.

“It gives me great pride to accept the challenge presented by INEOS.

“I am very excited about the months of good preparation to come and to show the world that when you focus on your goal, when you work hard and when you believe in yourself, anything is possible.”

Kipchoge’s time in Monza cannot be ratified as an official world record because of certain strategies used, including the way he was paced, and it is believed that similar strategies will be employed during his next attempt.

According to The Guardian, London’s Battersea Park is being considered as a venue, with Hugh Brasher – the son of Chris Brasher who helped to pace Bannister to his sub-four mile – said to be helping with the planning of the sub-two attempt as part of his role as the event director of the London Marathon.

The INEOS 1:59 Challenge is being supported by INEOS, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, which also sponsors children’s running charities GO Run For Fun and The Daily Mile.

“As Eliud showed in Monza, when he came within touching distance of achieving what many had previously thought impossible, he is a truly special athlete with incredible levels of mental resolve,” said Kipchoge’s coach, Patrick Sang.

“Throughout his dazzling marathon career he has pushed the event to a new stratosphere and with the right preparation, I believe he has the ability to make history.”

The Portland Timbers have completed the transfer of forward Brian Fernandez from Necaxa, multiple sources have confirmed to ESPN FC.

While multiple outlets reported in recent weeks have reported that the terms of the deal had been finalized, the Athletic was first to report that the transfer is complete, with Fernandez securing his work visa in the last few days.

The sources didn't divulge the precise fee, but they did reveal that it dwarfs the previous club record of close to $5 million the Timbers paid for Lucas Melano back in 2017, though it's not as high as the $12 million previously reported.

- Carlisle: The Timbers have the tools to get back on track

Fernandez, 24, can play either as a central striker or on the wing, and is expected to arrive in Portland as early as Monday. The signing also concludes the Timbers' lengthy and at times public search for a new attacking piece, which saw them linked with the likes of the Tigres duo of Julian Quinones and Eduardo Vargas, as well as AEK Athens' on-loan attacker Ezequiel Ponce.

It is also believed that Fernandez will not have to serve out the remaining two games of a three-game suspension he recently was handed following a red card and then a subsequent altercation with a fan as he left the field, though MLS will ultimately have the final say.

While it was an ignominious end to his Necaxa career, Fernandez's stint with Los Rayos resurrected his career. While on the books of Racing Club, Fernandez was suspended for a year by CONMEBOL following a failed drug test in which he tested positive for cocaine.

A series of loan stints followed with the likes of Sarmiento, Metz and Union La Calera, but his time with Necaxa proved highly productive, with the Argentine scoring 12 goals in 15 games during the current Clausura. Overall, Fernandez scored 18 goals in 32 league and cup appearances.

Fernandez joins the Timbers with three games remaining in Portland's season opening 12-game road swing due to renovations at its home venue, Providence Park. The Timbers have so far gone 3-5-1 and sit in ninth place in the 12-team Western Conference.