DAMIAN LILLARD’S 44 points ensured the Portland Trail Blazers were able to ride out a a 50-point display from Kevin Durant – his best in a Warriors jersey — to head into the All-Star break with a morale-boosting victory.
The Trail Blazers ended a seven-game losing streak with the 123-117 win over the Golden State Warriors last night.
Durant’s heroics brought the Warriors to within two points in the third quarter and three in the fourth, having trailed by deficits in the teens for most of the night.
Lillard was backed by C.J. McCollum (29 points) and Jusuf Nurkic, who finished with 17 points.
The win saw Portland improve to 32-26, vaulting them into sixth spot in the Western Conference standings.
The Warriors fell to 44-14 with the loss, leaving them one behind the Houston Rockets – who James Harden led to a 10th straight win against Sacramento Kings to put his side at the top of the standings.
“I came out in a good rhythm,” Lillard said. “I thought we were really resilient tonight on both ends of the floor. We got a big, much-needed win.
“We needed this going into the break, to get some momentum going into the second half of the season.”
Elsewhere, DeAndre Jordan scored a career-high 30 points as the LA Clippers sent the Boston Celtics spinning to a fourth defeat in five games with a 129-119 victory at the TD Garden.
Jordan produced an inspirational performance that included 13 rebounds, three assists and four steals to give his side a deserved road victory.
The win left the Clippers firmly in the hunt in the Western Conference playoff race, taking them to 30-26. Boston leaned heavily on a 33-point haul from Kyrie Irving but it was not enough to stop them from a third straight loss.
But while the Clippers battled to a deserved win, there was no such luck for their city rivals the Lakers, who were demolished 139-117 by an Anthony Davis-inspired New Orleans Pelicans.
Davis conjured another hefty exhibition of scoring, pouring on 42 points with 15 rebounds and three assists to take his team to 31-26.
However the action was overshadowed by a stormy contest which saw former Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo and the Lakers’ new signing Isaiah Thomas, who later claimed he had been hit in the face three times by Rondo, ejected after their fracas in the first quarter.
Lakers coach Luke Walton was also given his marching orders, sent to the locker room in the second quarter after an expletive-laden tirade at the officiating crew following a foul against Kyle Kuzma.
