----- Damian Lillard scores 24 points and dishes out seven assists as the Portland Trail Blazers win their third-straight with a 122-110 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans Friday night at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA.
It wasn't pretty, but the Trail Blazers took care of business on Friday night keeping pace with the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference playoff race.
Damian Lillard scored 24 points and dished out seven assists and CJ McCollum added 23 points, five rebounds, and four assists as the Portland Trail Blazers topped the New Orleans Pelicans 122-110 at Smoothie King Center. With the win, Portland (42-26) remains in fourth place in the Western Conference playoff standings a half-game behind Houston (43-26) for third.
The Pelicans got off to a great start behind 21 points from Julius Randle in the first quarter. New Orleans took at 37-30 lead after one quarter, but slowed down in the second scoring just 20 points as Portland pulled to within a point at 57-56.
Randle finished the night with a game-high 45 points adding 11 rebounds and six-assists. Randle cut the Blazers lead to four at 100-96 with 7:00 to play in the game, but Portland responded with a 22-14 run to close the game.
Rodney Hood got the start tonight in place of Maurice Harkless (sore knee) and scored 17 points. Enes Kanter had a solid night finishing with 17 points and eight rebounds and Zach Collins added 12 points and eight rebounds.
The win was Portland's third-straight and moved their road record to 17-17 on the season.
Notes- With 3:54 to play in the first half, Damian Lillard nailed a three-point basket to move past LaMarcus Aldridge into second place on the Trail Blazers all-time scoring list. The bucket gave Lillard 12,565 career points, moving him ahead of LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored 12,562 points in nine seasons with the Blazers.
Lillard now only trails Clyde Drexler, who finished his Blazers career as the franchiseâs leading scorer with 18,040 points.
Up Next- The Trail Blazers play the second of a back to back tomorrow night in San Antonio against the Spurs. The game is scheduled to tip off at 5:30 PM.
Chad's Take- Ugly, but I will never complain about a road win.