PORTLAND, Ore. — Damian Lillard had 19 points and 12 assists and the Portland Trail Blazers won their fourth straight game, beating the Boston Celtics 100-94 on Sunday night.
Jusuf Nurkic added 18 points and 17 rebounds for Portland. The Trail Blazers have won seven of their last eight.
Jayson Tatum matched his regular-season career high with 27 points and Kyrie Irving added 21 for the Celtics. They finished 1-4 on a five-game road trip.
The Blazers led by as many as 21 points, but the Celtics went on a 13-2 run to start the fourth quarter and pulled to within 85-83. Marcus Morris’ 3-pointer tied it at 86 with 7:27 left, but Lillard answered with a basket to put Portland back in front.
The Blazers held on to the lead, but Irving’s 3-pointer with 2:55 left closed the Celtics to 92-91. Al-Farouq Aminu answered with a 3-pointer for the Blazers, then made another key 3 that put Portland up 100-94 with a minute left.
Irving returned to the Celtics after missing Friday’s loss at Utah because he was at his grandfather’s funeral.
Celtics forward Daniel Theis, who sustained a plantar fascia tear on Oct. 27, played for five minutes and had two rebounds.
Lillard’s layup put the Blazers up 23-12 in the first quarter, and Portland led by as many as 12 points before the Celtics closed the gap to 28-26 on Terry Rozier’s floater. Boston’s momentum didn’t last long, and Meyers Leonard’s 3-pointer gave Portland a 40-31 lead midway through the second quarter.
Portland went into the break ahead 54-37, led by Nurkic with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Celtics made seven 3-pointers in the third quarter, including four in a row by Tatum, and got as close as 71-66 before another Portland run stretched the lead to 83-70 entering the final quarter.
The Celtics were coming off a 123-115 loss to the Jazz, which marked Gordon Hayward’s first trip back to Salt Lake City after going to Boston as a free agent in the summer of 2017.Portland was coming off a 116-105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.