BOSTON — LaMarcus Aldridge likes the attitude the Portland Trail Blazers have during this winning streak.
Aldridge had 20 points and 14 rebounds, reserve Chris Kaman scored 16 points and the Trail Blazers extended their streak to seven games with a 94-88 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night.
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WHO: Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls
WHEN: 1 p.m. Friday
WHERE: TD Garden
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“I like it because I don’t want guys getting caught up in the moment of seven in a row,” he said. “Act like we’ve arrived, still in the moment, still staying hungry.”
Damian Lillard added 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists for Portland, which began a brief East swing. Nicolas Batum also had 12 points.
After a rough first half, the Trail Blazers were much better offensively in the second. They added better defense and pulled away early in the fourth quarter.
“We started to get stops,” Lillard said. “Everything in the first half, they were comfortable and it was simple. We picked it up in the defensive end and made them have to guard more than one thing.”
Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger had 19 points apiece for Boston, which dropped its fifth in six games. Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo each scored 13.
“I feel really good about the way we guarded,” Boston Coach Brad Stevens said. “I feel like now we have a way that we can point to or a game that we can point to that we did it against a good team.”
Green agreed.
“I believe we played great,” he said. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game.”
The game was tied at 72-all after three quarters before the Trail Blazers took charge with a 17-5 run to start the fourth. Wesley Matthews and Lillard each hit a 3-pointer just over a minute apart.
Boston missed 12 of its first 14 shots in the quarter.
The Celtics made a brief spurt, closing it to 92-88 on consecutive 3s by Bradley and Sullinger with 90 seconds to go, but they were unable to make shots in the final minute.
Portland shot just 35.4 percent in the opening half, but started 6 of 7 in the second and took their first lead of the game at 59-57 on Aldridge’s layup. The teams were then tied five times in the final 4 minutes of the third.
Before the game. Portland Coach Terry Stotts talked about his team needing to stop its habit of slow starts. It didn’t happen, as the Trail Blazers missed 12 of their first 13 shots from the floor and fell behind by 10 midway into the second quarter.
GRIZZLIES 107, CLIPPERS 91: Marc Gasol had 30 points and 12 rebounds to lead host Memphis past Los Angeles.
Gasol was 13 of 18 from the field as six Grizzlies reached double figures. Courtney Lee added 13 points for Memphis, which maintained the league’s best record (12-2).
HEAT 94, HORNETS 93: Luol Deng scored 26 points, Chris Bosh and Mario Chalmers each added 20 and Miami held on in the final seconds to beat Charlotte and snap a three-game home slide.
WARRIORS 91, THUNDER 86: Marreese Speights scored 28 points to help Golden State win at Oklahoma City.
It matched the second-highest scoring game of Speights’ career and was his best total since 2009.
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