DENVER — For a moment Monday, his anger triggered and his frustration about to overflow, Trail Blazers forward Maurice Harkless wanted to throw the ball. Throw it the length of the court. Heck, for how steamed he was, he could probably throw it from Denver to Ft. Collins.



“I think I learned my lesson last series about throwing stuff,” Harkless said, referencing last week, when he was fined $15,000 by the NBA for discarding his headwear into the scorer’s table in the closing seconds of a Game 3 loss in Oklahoma City. “But yeah, I wanted to throw it.”



As he clutched the ball and thought about an angry heave, the Blazers were well on their way to a 121-113 loss to Denver in Game 1 of this Western Conference semifinal.



He had fouled out with 3:20 left, and the Blazers trailing 113-104, but the disqualification was only part of his frustration. He never got involved offensively. And in guarding a non-scorer in Torrey Craig, he...