Paul George and Russell Westbrook combined for 68 points to lift the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder to a 111-109 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers Friday night.
George scored 37 points and Westbrook added 31 as the Thunder snapped a six-game losing streak in their series with the Trail Blazers.
Damian Lillard finished with 23 points and eight assists, and Jusuf Nurkic collected 22 points and eight rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who had won two straight.
Nurkic scored 16 points on 8-for-9 shooting and Lillard added 13 to give Portland a 62-57 lead at the half. George had 21 points for Oklahoma City.
The Thunder cut the deficit to 80-78 in the third quarter, and George's 3-pointer gave them an 83-82 advantage with 2:43 left in the period.
Oklahoma City took a 93-87 lead into the final period.
The Thunder increased their advantage to 99-91 with nine minutes left. A Westbrook steal and solo layup gave them a 103-95 lead with 6:07 remaining.
Portland's Al-Farouq Aminu made a pair at the line to trim the difference to 103-97 with 5:27 to go.
Steven Adams' dunk pushed Oklahoma City back on top 105-97, and a fall-back jumper by Westbrook made it 107-97 with 4:13 to play.
Lillard sank four straight free throws, the latter two cutting the margin to 107-101 with 2:43 left. Westbrook scored on a post-up to make it 109-101, but Nurkic hit a pair of foul shots to draw Portland with 109-103 with 1:37 remaining.
CJ McCollum's 13-footer made it 109-105 with 1:02 left, and Lillard was fouled on a 3-point attempt. He hit two of three free throws to cut it to 109-107 with 42.8 seconds to go.
Neither team scored again until George knocked down two foul shots with 4.3 ticks left to wrap it up. Aminu's follow shot at the buzzer ended the scoring.
George scored nine points in the first five minutes as Oklahoma City mounted a 13-11 lead. Portland used an 11-2 run to go ahead 22-15. The Thunder rallied to tie it at 28-28 after one quarter, George leading the way with 13 points.
Jake Layman came off the bench to hit four straight shots and push Portland ahead 47-39. The Blazers later extended their advantage to 58-47.
Portland led by five at the half.
--Field Level Media
Oklahoma City | Portland | |
Paul George 37 | Scoring | Damian Lillard 23 |
Russell Westbrook 7 | Assists | Evan Turner 9 |
Steven Adams 12 | Rebounds | Al-Farouq Aminu 15 |
Paul George 12 | Free Throws Made | Damian Lillard 8 |
Nerlens Noel 3 | Steals | Jusuf Nurkic 3 |
Terrance Ferguson 2 | Blocks | Maurice Harkless 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Oklahoma City | 111 | 42.6 | 8-25 | 23-26 | 18 | 49 | 6 | 9 | 11 |
Portland | 109 | 43.2 | 9-31 | 18-21 | 30 | 50 | 5 | 6 | 12 |