PORTLAND -- https://twitter.com/DavidMacKayNBA/status/926330035153149952Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard hit a stepback three-pointer over Brandon Ingram with 0.7 seconds to play to lift Portland to a 113-110 victory versus the Los Angeles Lakers in front of a sellout crowd of 19,496 Thursday night at the Moda Center. “It’s good to get a close game win,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “We need that, especially on the heels of not only last night but some of the other games. Dame’s shot was huge. He really carried us in the second half.”The Trail Blazers are now 5-4 overall and 4-2 at home this season. The win is Portland’s 13-straight versus the Lakers, a streak dating back to March of 2014.The Trail Blazers played about as well as they possibly could in the first 12 minutes of Thursday’s game, which indicated that perhaps their issues with slow starts had been solved. Portland shot 71 percent from the field, 6-of-7 from three and finished the quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 41-25 lead into the second quarter. But oh, those second quarters. Behind 13 points from center Brook Lopez, the Lakers outscored the Trail Blazers 37-25 in the quarter to erase almost the entirety of what was at one point an 18-point lead. “After a good first quarter, I felt like we stopped playing the way that got us the lead,” said Stotts. “That was disappointing.”
"His offense was really good as far as finishing around the basket," said Stotts of Nurkić. "I thought our guards did a nice job of finding him on the rolls, on pick and rolls, the passes that they made to him in the lane made his job easier. So I think it was a combination of both of them, but it was good for him to have a night like that where he was finishing around the basket."
CJ McCollum finished with 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Pat Connaughton added nine points and Evan Turner went for six points, seven rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes.The Lakers were led by Brook Lopez, who went 9-of-15 from the field for 27 points to go with three rebounds and a block in 29 minutes. Rookie Kyle Kuzma went 10-of-17 from the field for 22 points in 28 minutes. Kuzma's rookie counterpart Lonzo Ball went scoreless in 28 minutes.Next up, the Trail Blazers continue their six-game homestand by hosting reigning MVP Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night at the Moda Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.