Lillard’s 40 lift Blazers over Wizards

Damian Lillard scored 40 points, C.J. McCollum added 25 and the Trail Blazers beat the host Wizards, 119-109, on Sunday.

Jusuf Nurkic had 13 points, 14 rebounds and matched his career high with eight assists for Portland.

The Trail Blazers, coming off a 112-96 loss at Minnesota on Friday, ended a two-game losing streak and improved to 11-5.

John Wall scored 24 points and Kelly Oubre, Jr. added 19 for the Wizards, who slipped to 5-11.

Washington, which trailed by 29 points in the third, cut the deficit to 115-107 with 51 seconds to play.

Dwight Howard, who missed the first seven games of the season with gluteal soreness, aggravated the injury in the second quarter and was ruled out at halftime after scoring two points and picking up three fouls in seven minutes.

LeBron James scored 51 points, including 19 in the first quarter, against his former club and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the host Miami Heat, 113-97. The 51 points were a season high for James, and the most he's scored against Miami; he had 47 against the Heat twice. His last shot was a 32-footer with 16 seconds left, capping the 13th 50-point game of his career — including playoffs.