Portland Trail Blazers fans had their excitement doubled on Friday: first, their beloved center Jusuf Nurkic returned healthy and did great in their first game during restart; second, the Trail Blazers claimed an important win over the Memphis Grizzlies 140-135 in the competition for playoff qualification.

Nurkic's return sent Hassan Whiteside to the bench. Both had to remain in the paint in defense. Whiteside, thanks to his better health and athleticism, was a better finisher but Nurkic could contribute more to offense with his passing and better screen setting. His 18 points, nine rebounds and six blocks were good, but the five assists he delivered and those screens he set for Damian Lillard were just as valuable.

Of course, Nurkic's return could not solve all of Portland's problems. The team still lacked decent wingmen. The existence of Nurkic, Zach Collins and Whiteside made sure that Rip City had league-top defense in the paint, but they had very limited to do challenging the opponents in the middle range, not to mention around the 3-point line.

That meant Rip City still had to rely on Lillard and McCollum for most of their offense. The two together scored 62 points, 15 assists in Friday's game. The high-quality screens provided by Nurkic gave Lillard better chances in long distance and Lillard only needed time to fins his touch back (2-9 in 3-pointers on Friday). As for McCollum, he did not have that much demand for screens since he focused more on the middle range, but having another good offensive rebounder (Nurkic) would be helpful.

36-year-old Carmelo Anthony saved Rip City with two golden triples in the last two minutes in Q4, helping pull the game into overtime. Having played 37 minutes, the team's third-longest time, on the court, Anthony kept high efficiency by going 7-10 to claim 21 points, seven rebounds plus two steals. As probably the only forward who could be trusted with his isolation ability, Anthony may be holding the key to whether Portland can make the playoffs.

The Grizzlies had the chance of winning this game. Despite their mediocre offense (rated 20th of all 30 teams), they fully utilized their biggest advantage: speed. With the 7th fastest game pace of the league and this year's best rookie guard Ja Morant, the Grizzlies kept trying to speed up all the time. They led 18-8 in fast break points; they forced the Trial Blazers to commit 16 turnovers and scored 26 points that way. If they could shoot any better from downtown (31.71 percent, 13-41), they would end up expanding their lead over the Trail Blazers in stead of watching it shrink.

Jaren Jackson Jr. put down a team-high 33 points for Memphis. Morant got 22 points, five rebounds and 11 assists. After Friday's game, Memphis are still No. 8 in the Western Conference and their leads over the following teams are: Trail Blazers (2.5 games), San Antonio Spurs (3.0 games), New Orleans Pelicans (3.5 games), Sacramento Kings (3.5 games), Phoenix Suns (5.0 games).

Celtics fail to cage the 'Greek Freak' as the over-four-month-long suspension apparently did not hold Giannis Antetokounmpo back at all. He went 14-20, stood 12 times onto the free throw line to put down 36 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists to help the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics 119-112.

Having gone 4-4 in the first three minutes, Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to make a perfect start with a 17-2 run. It only took him eight attempts to get a double-double of 16 points, 10 rebounds in the first half. When the Celtics continued to narrow the score difference down in the last quarter, Antetokounmpo stood out again to get 16 points, including eight in the last three minutes that came from one make-up and two 3-point plays.

By contrast, Jayson Tatum who averaged 30.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 4.1 3-pointers in the 10 games before the suspension, was only 2-18 to get five points in Friday's game. The last time he failed to reach double-digit points this season happened in last November when he went 1-18.

In Friday's game, Tatum missed all four triples and when he tried to challenge the league's best rim-protecting defense made by Brook Lopez and Antetokounmpo, he received three blocks as souvenirs. Having optimized his shooting choices and improved his 3-pointers this season, Tatum already became a top 10 scorer in today's NBA. Though the chances are small, Boston cannot afford to watch him play like this if they want to make a difference in the playoffs.

Other games on Friday:

Orlando Magic 128-118 Brooklyn Nets

Phoenix Suns 125-112 Washington Wizards

Sacramento Kings 120-129 San Antonio Spurs

Houston Rockets 153-149 Dallas Mavericks