{"id":146933,"date":"2018-01-17T02:36:59","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T07:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=146933"},"modified":"2018-01-17T02:36:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T07:36:59","slug":"lillard-scores-31-blazers-beat-suns-118-111","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/17\/lillard-scores-31-blazers-beat-suns-118-111\/","title":{"rendered":"Lillard scores 31, Blazers beat Suns 118 111"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Damian Lillard scored 31 points and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 118-111 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.(Photo taken from Trail Blazers’ official Instagram account)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Damian Lillard scored 31 points and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 118-111 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

CJ McCollum had 27 points, including six 3-pointers, and the Trail Blazers led by as many as 27 points in third quarter.<\/p>\n

Devin Booker had 43 for the Suns, who have lost three straight and five of their last six.<\/p>\n

Booker rallied the Suns in the final quarter with 21 points. His 3-pointer got the Suns within 103-93 with just over seven minutes left and Portland coach Terry Stotts put his starters back in.<\/p>\n

Booker hit another 3-pointer to narrow Portland’s lead to 107-99. McCollum answered with a basket, and Portland got a stop before Al-Farouq Aminu’s 3 from the corner with 3:30 left.<\/p>\n

Another 3-pointer by Aminu put Portland up 117-105 with 1:12 left and put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n

Booker finished with five 3-pointers, four of them in the fourth quarter alone.<\/p>\n

It was Portland’s first game back home after a four-game road trip. The Blazers dropped consecutive games to Houston, New Orleans and Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Suns were without Marquese Chriss for the third straight game because of a right hip strain. Dragan Bender started in his place.<\/p>\n

Phoenix was also without T.J. Warren because of low back soreness. Both Chriss and Warren were considered day-to-day.<\/p>\n

Portland’s Shabazz Napier, who has helped give the Blazers a spark off the bench, was available after nursing a lower back strain. He had his back wrapped with an ice pack while the team warmed up for the second half. Napier finished with 11.<\/p>\n

Lillard hit a 3-pointer with the first shot of the game, and the Blazers opened 8 for 8 from the field. Lillard finished the opening quarter with 12 points, second only to Booker with 13.<\/p>\n

Pat Connaughton’s 3-pointer put the Blazers up 45-36, and McCollum hit a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 66-51 going into the half. Lillard and Booker each finished the half with 20 points.<\/p>\n

Portland pulled away in the second half, going up 80-56 after McCollum’s steal and layup. The Suns opened the half just 1-of-13 from the field.<\/p>\n

The game got a bit testy in the fourth quarter, when Maurice Harkless and Booker exchanged words. Both were given technical fouls.<\/p>\n

Troy Daniels finished with 18 points off the bench for Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The teams met in the season opener in Phoenix, with the Blazers winning 124-76 for the worst loss in Suns’ history. Portland won the second meeting 114-107 in Portland on Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

TIP-INS<\/p>\n

Suns: It was the first of a four-game road trip for the Suns. … Going into the game, Phoenix was 4-4 on the road in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Trail Blazers: McCollum’s career high for 3-pointers is seven. … Portland has traditionally enjoyed a strong home-court advantage, but this season was 10-10 going into Tuesday’s game. The victory gave the Blazers a four-game winning streak at the Moda Center.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Suns: Visit the Denver Nuggets on Friday.<\/p>\n

Trail Blazers: Host the Indiana Pacers on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Damian Lillard scored 31 points and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak with a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[5986,14109,14386],"class_list":["post-146933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-damian-lillard","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-portland-trail-blazers","mauthors-anne-m-peterson","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}