Celtics outlast Blazers, hurt Portland's playoff hopes

[August 03, 2020]  Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 34 points and Jaylen Brown added 30, leading the Boston Celtics to a 128-124 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday at The Arena near Orlando.

Brown scored 22 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer with 32.3 seconds left that stretched Boston's lead to 125-119, sinking Portland.

Gordon Hayward added 22 points for Boston, going 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. He had six of his points in the final two minutes, making his only field goal try and going 4-for-4 at the foul line.

Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic led Portland with 30 points each. Lillard, who added a season-high and game-high 16 assists, scored 22 of his points after halftime. Nurkic added a game-high nine rebounds.

The Blazers also got 21 points from reserve Gary Trent and 17 from CJ McCollum. Trent made 7 of 11 3-point shots as the Blazers rallied from a 24-point second-half deficit, taking a fourth-quarter lead.

Still, it wasn't enough to prevent a potentially devastating loss for the Blazers, who are chasing the Memphis Grizzlies for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Portland (30-38) trails the Grizzlies (32-35) by 2 1/2 games. The Celtics (44-22), meanwhile, are two games up on Miami (42-24) in third place in the Eastern Conference. Toronto (47-18) is 3 1/2 games ahead of the Celtics for second.

Boston, smaller but quicker than Portland's starting lineup, led 37-24 at the end of the first quarter. Boston shot 60 percent from the floor in the first quarter, including 63.6 percent on 3-pointers (7 of 11).

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