Pacers fall at Portland for 10th straight time

[March 19, 2019]  Damian Lillard scored 30 points and dished out 15 assists as the Portland Trail Blazers downed the visiting Indiana Pacers 106-98 Monday night.

Jusuf Nurkic contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who have beaten Indiana in nine of the teams' past 10 meetings. The Pacers have lost 10 straight on the Blazers' home court.

Al-Farouq Aminu added 16 points for Portland, which has won four of five games overall. Rodney Hood and Seth Curry had 11 points apiece, and Maurice Harkless scored 10.

Myles Turner scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who fell to 0-2 on a four-game road trip. Bojan Bogdanovich scored 15 points while Dylan McDermott and Wesley Matthews had 14 each.

Lillard scored 18 points and Nurkic added 14 as Portland took a 55-48 advantage into halftime. Turner had 18 first-half points for Indiana.

The Blazers increased their edge to 77-60 midway through the third quarter when Lillard capped an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer. Portland took an 88-72 lead into the final period.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by McDermott cut the difference to 93-80 with 8:47 remaining. Tyreke Evans' three-point play got the Pacers within 98-88 with 5:55 left. Bogdanovic's layup brought the visitors within 100-91 with 2:57 to go. Turner hit a pair at the line to trim it to 100-93 with 1:30 to play.

Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic (left) drives to the basket against Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (right) during the first quarter at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

Lillard sank two free throws to give Portland a 102-93 lead with 1:08 remaining. Bogdanovic replicated that to cut it to 102-95 with one minute left. Mathews' layup got the Pacers within 102-97 with 26.5 ticks on the clock, but Aminu knocked down two foul shots to wrap things up for the Blazers.

Turner scored 11 points in the first six minutes as Indiana jumped to a 23-12 lead. Portland cut the difference to 31-28 after one quarter.

The Pacers opened up the gap to 41-30 early in the second quarter. The Blazers, who started the game 0-for-10 from 3-point range, used a 16-2 run to take a 46-43 lead. Portland carried a seven-point lead into intermission.

--Field Level Media

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