CJ McCollum's strong finish lifts Blazers past Raptors

[November 16, 2021] CJ McCollum scored 10 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter and the Portland Trail Blazers held on to defeat the visiting Toronto Raptors 118-113 on Monday night.

 

The Raptors trailed by 13 points in the fourth quarter but used a late run capped by Fred VanVleet's 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one with 1:51 to play.

Norman Powell made two free throws to give Portland a three-point lead with 1:32 left. McCollum hit a jumper to increase the lead to five with 48.7 seconds to play.

Damian Lillard added 24 points -- 16 in the first half -- for the Trail Blazers, who have won four straight over the Raptors dating to January 2020.

Larry Nance Jr. added 15 points for Portland, Powell had 12 points, Robert Covington had 11 and Jusuf Nurkic contributed five points and 14 rebounds.

OG Anunoby had 23 of his 29 points in the first half for the Raptors. He made six 3-pointers to match his career best. Pascal Siakam added 20 points, Gary Trent Jr. and Scottie Barnes had 18 apiece and VanVleet registered 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Portland won for just the second time in five games while Toronto lost for the fifth time in six games.

The Raptors overcame an eight-point deficit in the third quarter to tie the game going into the fourth.

Portland opened the final period on a 10-0 surge.

Portland stretched the lead to 13 points on McCollum's 3-pointer with 7:20 left. Toronto responded with a 9-0 run capped by VanVleet's 3-pointer with 5:34 to go, but a block by McCollum and a 3-pointer by Lillard had the lead back to nine with 4:38 to play.

Toronto was on top 33-24 at the end of the first quarter after being up by 14 points.

Covington's layup, Lillard's 16-footer and Powell's layup completed the first-half scoring and gave Portland a 61-60 lead.

Covington's 3-pointer gave Portland an eight-point lead with 3:38 remaining in the third quarter. Anunoby's layup cut the margin to four, and Barnes made a jumper and a free throw to trim the gap to one with 1:21 left.

Malachi Flynn's layup for Toronto completed the third-quarter scoring and tied the game at 85.

--Field Level Media

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