OKLAHOMA CITY – CJ McCollum posted his highest scoring output of 2019 and got plenty of help from his backcourt mate, but despite their efforts the Trail Blazers fell, 123-114, to the Thunder in the second game of a back-to-back Tuesday night.
"I think the biggest difference in the game was our turnovers that they created," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "They got out in transition. The two quarters that we lost we had six turnovers in each of those quarters. That just fueled their runs, I felt."
The Trail Blazers are now 29-20 overall and 9-13 on the road this season. Portland now sits in fourth-place in the Western Conference after going into Tuesday's contest tied with Oklahoma City for third.
Despite playing the second night of a back-to-back after arriving in Oklahoma City well after 3 a.m., the Trail Blazers overcame a slow start, thanks in large part to seven offensive rebounds, to go into the second quarter Tuesday night tied at 25-25.
But cracks formed early in the second quarter, with the Thunder turning six turnovers into nine points in the second quarter. So despite shooting 50 percent from the field in the second quarter, Portland entered the intermission trailing 62-55.
Much like a night before, the Trail Blazers got a huge individual third-quarter performance to keep the team afloat in a hostile road environment. But this time it was McCollum, rather than Jusuf Nurkić, who came on strong immediately following the half.
The 6-4 guard out of Lehigh went 7-of-9 from the field, 5-of-6 from three and 2-of-2 from the free throw line for 21 of Portland's 32 points in the third quarter. Behind McCollum, Portland was able to keep the game relatively close at 93-87 going into the fourth.
"I just tried to be aggressive," said McCollum. "Tried to take advantage of pindowns, flares, read the defense, really take advantage of some movement without the ball. They did a good job of setting screens, Dame did a good job of recognizing some of the movement sets that put me in a position to have an advantage."
After deferring to McCollum in the third, Lillard looked for his own in the fourth, going 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from the free throw line for 14 point. But the Trail Blazers never had an answer for either Paul George or Russell Westbrook, with the All-Star duo combining for 21 points in the fourth.
"Paul George is a great player," said Stotts. "Last time we played him he had two points in the fourth quarter with that matchup, and that's the matchup I went with this time. (Westbrook)'s a dynamic player, and he had a good game obviously, but I thought the difference was Paul George. He kept the second unit alive. The way they rotated when he was in there with the bench guys against our bench and he really carried them over those stretches."
Trailing by as many as 12 points early in the fourth quarter, Portland climbed to within three, 109-106, with five minutes to play. But the Blazers couldn’t recover from costly turnovers that led to fastbreak points for the Thunder in the final minutes, resulting in the home team pulling away for the nine-point victory.
"I think over the course of the game, we were turning the ball over, but especially down the stretch we needed to do a much better job of valuing those possessions, getting up a shot," said Lillard. "I feel like when we were getting shots up, we were getting pretty good looks, having pretty good possessions, but we also had turnovers that turned into points for them and it hurt us."
TOP PERFORMERS
CJ McCollum scored 31 points and matched a career high with seven three-pointers made (of 12). He hit five 3-pointers during a sparkling third quarter, where he scored 21 points, his most in any period this season, on 5-for-6 shooting from downtown.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum scored 30+ points in the same game for the second time this season (Nov. 3 vs. LA Lakers).
Jusuf Nurkic scored 22 points for the second straight night and added a game-best 15 rebounds. Nurkic tallied eight points and eight rebounds in the first quarter alone. He has scored 10+ points in 14 of the past 15 games.
Paul George (36 points) tallied his 18th 30-point game of the season, and Russell Westbrook (29 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds) compiled his 14th triple-double of the year. Stephen Adams and Terrance Ferguson each finished with 14 points and Dennis Schroder scored 13 off the bench.
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NOTABLE
• Damian Lillard nabbed five steals, a season high and one shy of his career mark.
• The Thunder hold a 2-0 advantage in the season series with the Trail Blazers. Prior to this season, Portland had won six straight games against Oklahoma City.
• Portland turnover the ball over 20 times in Tuesday's loss, with 16 of those turnovers coming by way of Oklahoma City steals.
• The Trail Blazers outscored the Thunder in the paint (52-45) and in second chance points (19-12) but were dominated in fastbreak points (28-6)
QUOTABLE
"I had about four (turnovers) tonight that led directly to baskets for them, easy baskets. Playing back-to-back you’ve got to really take care of the ball." -- CJ McCollum
NEXT UP
With the back-to-back behind them, the Trail Blazers finish up a three-game trip in Phoenix Thursday night versus the Suns. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.