Nurkic, Lillard lift Blazers past Pacers

[January 19, 2018]  Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic led the way as the Portland Trail Blazers disposed of the visiting Indiana Pacers 100-86 Thursday night at Moda Center.

Lillard collected 26 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and Nurkic scored 19 points and grabbed 17 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who won their second consecutive game.

Darren Collison and Victor Oladipo each scored 23 points while Thaddeus Young had 10 points and 14 boards for the Pacers, whose three-game winning streak ended.

The Blazers broke things open by outscoring the Pacers 26-12 in the fourth quarter.

Nurkic had 12 points and 12 rebounds to pace Portland to a 52-47 lead at halftime. Oladipo had 11 first-half points for Indiana.

Indiana went ahead 72-66 on three consecutive 3-pointers by Collison late in the third quarter. Shabazz Napier's 3-pointer off a steal at the buzzer tied the score at 74-74 heading into the final period.

Portland scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to go ahead 82-74. The Blazers extended the difference to 92-79 on a three-point play by Lillard with 3:33 to go. Collison cut it to 92-82 with a trey, and Oladipo followed with a jumper to make it 92-84 with 2:34 remaining.

Nurkic dunked off a Lillard feed and completed the three-point play to push Portland ahead 95-84 with 1:44 left.

 

Pacers guard Victor Oladipo (4) dribbles past Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (27) and Trail Blazers' guard CJ McCollum (3) in the first half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

The Pacers got no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

The Trail Blazers jumped to a 15-6 lead in the first four minutes. It was 20-10 when Indiana used an 18-6 run to go ahead 28-26. CJ McCollum's 3-pointer as time expired gave Portland a 29-28 advantage after one quarter.

Indiana pulled ahead 43-39 midway through the second quarter, but the Blazers finished with a 13-4 spurt to take a five-point edge into intermission.

Both teams shot poorly, the Blazers making 39.4 percent of their field-goal attempts and the Pacers 39.6 percent. However, Portland sank all 16 of its foul shots, eight of them by Lillard, while Indiana was just 7 of 13 at the line.

--Field Level Media

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