The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-112, at Moda Center on Wednesday night.
With a key matchup against New Orleans looming, it would have been easy for the Trail Blazers (27-19) to overlook the lowly Cavaliers (9-36), but the home team did anything but that Wednesday. Cleveland managed to stick around for a half before Portland really blew things up in the final 24 minutes. Damian Lillard led the way with a game-high 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting and six assists in 32 minutes, while C.J. McCollum played just 29 minutes but still managed to bounce back from a 2-of-14 shooting performance against the Kings with 19 points. Jusuf Nurkic continues to have a stellar season, as he posted a rare triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 28 minutes. As a team, the Blazers were on fire from behind the arc, shooting a scorching 55.2 percent from three.
As for the Cavaliers, they managed to shoot just 31.6 percent from three, and their league-worst defense was simply unable to keep pace with Portland. Jordan Clarkson provided a big spark off the bench, scoring a team-high 22 points in 29 minutes as a reserve. He led a starting unit that carried Cleveland through most of Wednesday's contest, as the team' second unit 66 of the team's 112 points. Rodney Hood led the way for the starters, scoring 20 points of his own on 7-of-15 shooting in 25 minutes. The other four starters would combine for just 36 points, as Cleveland lost for the 13th time in its last 14 outings.
