Blazers use fast start to beat Hawks
Westbrook triple-double streak ends in Thunder win
The Portland Trail Blazers continued their quest to secure the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with a 113- 97 win over Atlanta, which also snapped a five- game losing skid to the Hawks.
Portland, who are trying to overtake the Denver Nuggets in the postseason race, led by 23 points just 10 minutes into the game and rolled to victory behind 27 points from Damian Lillard and 22 from CJ McCollum.
“Well, the understatement is that the first quarter was really an outstanding quarter for us at both ends,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.
“Defensively, we were really locked in. It got us off to a great start. After that, the game was kind of methodical, but the first quarter was pretty impressive.”
Ersan Ilyasova tallied 23 points. He started in place of Paul Millsap who experienced left knee tightness warming up and was a late scratch.
The Trail Blazers, who made 13 of their first 15 shots from the floor, shot 76 percent in the first quarter to 16 percent for the Hawks and led 63- 46 at halftime.
Also on Saturday, NBA scoring leader Russell Westbrook netted a game- high 28 points but missed out on a fifth consecutive triple- double in Oklahoma City’s 110- 94 home victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Westbrook, averaging a leaguehigh 31.7 points a game, also passed off 10 assists but managed only eight rebounds before being removed with 58 seconds remaining.
The Thunder’s fifth consecutive victory improved the team’s record to 40- 29 to match the Los Angeles Clippers for fifth in the Western Conference. With 13 games remaining in the regular season, Westbrook has so far this season managed 34 triple- doubles – double- digit performances in three statistical categories in one game.
That leaves Westbrook seven triple- doubles shy of Oscar Robertson’s record of 41 in a single season from the 1961- 62 campaign.
That season was also the one in which Robertson became the only player in NBA history to average a triple- double for an entire season.
Robertson scored 30.8 points, pulling down 12.5 rebounds and passing off 11.4 assists a game for the Cincinnati Royals, who moved to Kansas City in 1972 and again to Sacramento in 1985.
Westbrook could become the second NBA player to average a fullseason triple- double.
Elsewhere, Cody Zeller scored 19 points and the Charlotte Hornets snapped a three- game losing streak with a 98- 93 win over the Washington Wizards.
In Denver, James Harden had 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 109- 105. Harden has 11 games of 40 or more points and did it on consecutive nights.