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Trail Blazers Come Through In The Clutch To Sweep Celtics, Remain Perfect On Trip

BOSTON -- The Portland Trail Blazers remained undefeated on their post All-Star break road trip with a 97-92 victory versus the Celtics in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624 Tuesday night at TD Garden in Boston.

“There’s a lot to like about that game," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "I thought defensively we were solid all night. To win a game for us shooting 6-for-33 from three is kind of indicative of our defense... Road wins are hard to come by and this is a good win against a good team."

The Trail Blazers are now 38-23 overall, 15-15 away from the Moda Center, 18-4 versus teams from the Eastern Conference and 4-0 to start their seven-game trip. Portland has won five in a row, their longest win streak of the season, and have secured a 2-0 sweep of the season series versus Celtics.

The Trail Blazers remain in fourth in the Western Conference standings and are five games behind the first-place Warriors but just a half game behind the third-place Thunder.

Having not played since their victory versus the Cavaliers in Cleveland Monday night, the Trail Blazers looked to be the fresher team going up against a Celtics squad that suffered a bad loss the night before in Toronto versus the Raptors. Portland jumped out to a 17-8 lead with a CJ McCollum layup at the 4:25 mark of the first quarter, and for a moment it looked as though the Celtics might fold up early as they did the previous evening in Toronto.

But behind back-to-back three-pointers from Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, the Celtics went on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 24-24, though a Enes Kanter free throw, initially awarded after the first-quarter buzzer, gave Portland a 25-24 lead going into the second quarter.

Neither team shot better than 35 percent from the field and both teams finished the second quarter with 18 points, resulting in that one-point first-quarter lead carrying over to the intermission.

It wasn't until the third quarter that either team was able to get real separation, with the Trail Blazers outscoring the Celtics 19-6 over the course of six minutes to take a 62-50 lead after a Moe Harkless layup with 5:25 to play in the quarter. Harkless would go 4-of-5 from the field for eight points and five rebounds in the third quarter, providing the catalyst for what would be a game-changing run.

"He was a monster," said Damian Lillard of Harkless. "When they was having momentum, the crowd was getting into it, Moe'd tip a ball and get possession. Moe get an offensive rebound. Moe come up with a dunk, a cut, get his hands on the pass defensively. He did everything."

Well, almost everything, as Lillard provided the scoring pop to compliment Harkless' all-around play in the third, going 6-of-11 from the field for 15 points in the quarter. Between the play of Lillard and Harkless in the third, Portland took a 74-64 lead into the fourth.

But just as they did at the end of the first, the Celtics found life in the fourth, cutting Portland's advantage down to as few as two after a Jalen Brown floater with 8:49 to play trimmed the lead to 76-74.

Though they looked shaky at time, the Trail Blazers never relinquished the lead in the fourth, pushing the advantage back to as many as 12 after two Jusuf Nurkić free throws to 2:46 to play in regulation, which came on the heels of two straight blocks on Kyrie Irving by the Bosnian big man.

Nurk was effective, Moe Harkless had an outstanding defensive game throughout," said Stotts. "They made their run and coming back and getting the stops. The offense was kind of up and down -- I liked the looks -- but we won with our defensive tonight.”

Even with Portland playing quality defense, Boston got the lead down to three with just over 25 seconds to play, but Damian Lillard was able to burn some clock and make two free throws with 11.9 seconds to play to secure the five-point victory.

Portland was led by Damian Lillard, who went 13-of-27 from the field for a game-high 33 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in 37 minutes.

Moe Harkless continued his strong post-break play, going 8-of-13 from the field for 17 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Harkless also logged three steals in 37 minutes.

Jusuf Nurkic shot 50 percent from the field to finish with 16 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in 29 minutes. CJ McCollum added 14 points to round out Portland's double-digit scorers.

Kyrie Irving led the Celtics with 31 points on 14-of-24 shooting. Jayson Tatum added 14 and both Al Horford and Marcus Smart finished with 13 points.

The Trail Blazers now head to the Great White North to face the Raptors Friday night in Toronto. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. on NBC Sports Northwest and ESPN.