----- CJ McCollum finishes with 41 points and a career-high 12 assists and Carmelo Anthony scores a season-high 32 points as the Portland Trail Blazers snap their three-game losing streak with a 107-104 victory over the Detroit Pistons Sunday night at Moda Center.
It wasn't pretty, but the Trail Blazers got a much needed win Sunday night at Moda Center.
CJ McCollum finished with 41 points and a career-high 12 assists as the Portland Trail Blazers snapped their three-game losing streak defeating the Detroit Pistons 107-104 Sunday night at Moda Center.
McCollum connected on 15 of his 30 shots including 6-of-11 from three-point range. With nine rebounds, McCollum finished one rebound shy of a triple-double. He has one in his career (2019).
“CJ was outstanding,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “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, it’s been pretty impressive, back-to-back double digit assists, obviously, scoring well.”
Carmelo Anthony scored a season-high 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting and Hassan Whiteside finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds.
"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."
The Trail Blazers built a 19-point lead at 30-11 in the first quarter, but the Detroit Pistons responded with a 34-13 run to recapture the lead in the second quarter. Detroit limited Portland to 13-points in the second and trailed by just two at halftime.
The Pistons continued to control action in the third quarter building their lead to as many as 10-points.
The Blazers began to chip away in the fourth. The Pistons took a 95-86 lead on a Christian Wood dunk with 7:43 remaining, but Portland responded with a 21-9 run to closeout the game with McCollum and Anthony scoring 17 of the final 21 points in the game.
The Pistons (19-40) finished with a 70-10 edge in bench points. Christian Wood led Detroit in scoring with 26 points.
With the win, Portland (26-32) is now three-games behind Memphis for the 8th and final playoff spot and four-games back in the loss column.
Up Next- The Trail Blazers will host the Boston Celtics Tuesday night at Moda Center. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:00 PM.
Chad's Take- Hard to win games when you are playing guys named Mario, Gabriel, Little, and Biggie.