Trail Blazers beat Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY — C.J. McCollum had 27 points and seven assists, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-106 on Tuesday night in the opener of a four-game trip.
Shabazz Napier added 21 points and Jusuf Nurkic had 20 points and eight rebounds for Portland, which moved past Oklahoma City into second in the Northwest Division standings with its seventh win in its last nine games against the Thunder.
Portland has won four of five overall despite playing most of that stretch without star guard Damien Lillard, who sat out for the seventh time in the last nine games with a left calf strain.
Russell Westbrook had 22 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds for Oklahoma City, which has dropped off after playing well for most of December. The Thunder have dropped four of six, with three of those losses coming at home.
Oklahoma City shot 44 percent from the field while Portland made 53.1 percent of its shots. Paul George scored 22 points for the Thunder, and Carmelo Anthony had 19.
The Thunder closed to 83-76 with 1:39 remaining in the third quarter on a basket by Anthony, but Portland answered with a 13-1 run and led 96-77 after a 3-pointer by Al-Farouq Aminu with 10:25 left. Wayne Ellington made a go-ahead driving layup with less than a second remaining, and Miami stopped Toronto’s 12-game home winning streak with a victory. It was the only basket of the second half for Ellington, who finished with 15 points. Goran Dragic had 24 points and 12 rebounds as Miami extended its season-best winning streak to five. Bam Adebayo had 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds and Hassan Whiteside collected 13 points and 15 boards for the Heat, who had dropped their previous five visits to Toronto. The Raptors were without point guard Kyle Lowry after the three-time AllStar bruised his tailbone during Monday’s overtime win at Brooklyn. DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points as the Raptors lost for the first time in six games and failed to break the franchise record for consecutive home victories. Serge Ibaka finished with 11 after he was ejected in the second half. It was Toronto’s first home loss since Nov. 5 against Washington, a game in which Lowry was ejected early in the second quarter. The Raptors are 14-2 at home.