PORTLAND -- The Portland Trail Blazers led by as many as 19 points and trailed by as many as 10 before coming away with a 107-104 victory versus the Pistons in front of a sellout crowd of 19,393 Sunday night at the Moda Center.
"That was a heck of a game. The way we started was fun to watch, at both ends," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "Obviously we struggled in the second quarter, primarily defensively, kind of set the tone. But look at what we did to win the game, fourth quarter defense was outstanding."
The Trail Blazers are now 26-32 overall and 16-12 at home this season. The win ends a three-game losing streak and is their third straight home win versus the Pistons. Portland remains in ninth place in the Western Conference standings and are three games behind the Grizzlies for eighth and a half game up on the Pelicans for 10th.
The start of the first quarter didn't give one the impression that the Trail Blazers were likely to break the game open early. The Pistons scored the first five points while the Trail Blazers came out listless, airballed their first attempt, a three-pointer, before turning the ball over on the next possession.
But not long later, both CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony seemed to recognize their respective talents on offense were in excess of whatever the Pistons would be able to throw at them on defense. Soon thereafter, McCollum scored 10 points in roughly a minute and a half of play while Anthony made back-to-back three-pointers followed by an alley-oop finish on a feed from McCollum.
"CJ was terrific all night, but the first quarter in particular, he was outstanding," said Stotts. "Melo got us off to a great start. First quarter was awesome."
McCollum and Anthony would combine to score 27 points in the quarter while leading a 23-2 run that would help Portland take a 40-24 lead into the second quarter.
But rather than packing it in, the Pistons nearly matched the Blazers' first-quarter run with one of their own in the second. Portland had just three points through the first seven minutes of the quarter, allowing Detroit to go on a 19-3 run, that included scoring 16 straight, to take a 47-45 lead with just under four minutes to play in the first half.
"Those guys just wasn't trying to go away," said Anthony of the Pistons. "After we got out in the first quarter, we kind of let our foot off the gas and those guys got confidence. They gained some momentum, they stuck with it to the end of the game."
Despite playing one of their worst quarters of the season, the Blazers managed to put together some semblance of offense late in the first half to score 13 points in the quarter while taking a 53-51 lead into the intermission.
After the two teams took turns holding small leads for the first half of the third, the Pistons went on an 11-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at 83-73 with a minute to play in the quarter. Were it not for McCollum scoring the last seven of Portland's points in the third, they likely would have gone into the fourth worse off than the five-point deficit they faced.
"CJ was outstanding," said Stotts. "You look at his assists, the way he managed the game. Obviously he scored the ball, but you take what he's done in the last two games with Dame out and it's been pretty impressive. Back-to-back double digit assists, he's scoring well, but obviously it's one of the better games he's played in."
McCollum kept it going in the fourth, scoring 13 of his season-high 41 points in the final 12 minutes. And Anthony picked up where he left off in the first quarter as well, scoring eight points in the fourth on 3-of-4 shooting.
"We don't have a choice, we've got to go out there and do what we've got to do to help this team win, at least put ourselves in position to try to win a basketball game," said Anthony. "At the end of the day, it's going to come down to (McCollum and myself) putting that pressure on us and saying 'This is what we've got to do.' It's the last quarter of the season, we're in a dog fight trying to get that spot."
Add in Hassan Whiteside coming up with eight rebounds and two blocks, one of which came on what would have been a game-tying Derrick Rose layup with 40 seconds to play, and the Blazers as a whole holding the Pistons to 36 percent shooting in the quarter and the home team was able to overcome a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to come away with the three-point win.
TOP PERFORMERS
CJ McCollum led all scorers with a season-high 41 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-11 shooting from three. McCollum also added a career-high 12 assists and nine rebounds to come one short of the triple-double. It was his sixth career 40+ point game, the eighth double-double of his career and the first time he has recorded a double-double in consecutive games.
Carmelo Anthony put up a season-high 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 shooting from three. It was his 272nd career game with at least 30 points and is the most he's scored in almost three years.
Hassan Whiteside put up his 43rd triple-double of the season with 16 points and 17 rebounds. He also added four blocks and three assists.
Christian Woods came off the bench to lead the Pistons with 26 points and nine rebounds in 30 minutes. Derrick Rose and Brandon Knight each finished with 15 and Langston Galloway added 13.
NOTABLE
• Portland was 41-of-84 (48.8%) from the field, while Detroit shot 37-of-86 (43.0%). It was the 28th time this season that Portland has had an equal or better FG% than the opponent.
• The Trail Blazers starting lineup outscored Detroit’s starters, 97-34.
• The Trail Blazers dished out 20 assists to Detroit’s 18. It was Portland’s fifth consecutive game recording at least 20 assists.
• Portland outscored Detroit 15-13 in second chance points, while the Pistons outscored the Trail Blazers in fast break points, 21-20.
• Portland improved to 5-3 in games decided by three points or less.
QUOTABLE
“Just be aggressive, attack and do whatever we can to get a win.” -- CJ McCollum on his mentality going into the fourth quarter
HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT UP
The Trail Blazers finish up a three-game, post All-Star break homestand with a tilt versus the Boston Celtics Tuesday night at the Moda Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.