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Third Time’s a Charm! Blazers Beat T-Wolves, 123-114

After two previous losses to the Wolves, All-Star Damian Lillard leads the way to a Blazers 123-114 win.

By John_Stupak
NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves at Portland Trail Blazers Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

The Blazers scored 43 points in third quarter in route to an easy win over Wolves 123-114.

Freshly-named All-Star Damian Lillard led the way with 31 points, 6 assist and 4 rebounds. CJ McCollum had 28 points and 5 assists. Pat Connaughton had 12 points and two SportsCenter-worthy highlights. Al-Farouq Aminu contributed 15 points.

The Timberwolves were led by Andrew Wiggins 24 points. Karl-Anthony Town had 16 points and 9 rebounds. Jamal Crawford (remember him) had 19 points.

An All-Star Showing

Last week’s Western Conference Player of the Week and Portland’s newly minted All-Star gave Russell Westbrook a little something to chew on. In his first game since being named an All-Star, Damian Lillard delivered what Blazers fans are all too familiar with: An All-Star caliber performance, leading the charge during Portland’s third quarter surge.

Still Waiting on that “Bad Boys” Thing

Jusuf Nurkic struggled against the Minnesota’s big men tonight. While Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins have had better, stronger games, the two dominated the first half but failed to match Portland’s energy in the second. Nurkic was clearly frustrated at times in this outing and was rarely in the game during the Portland's bigger runs of the game.

Energy = Fast Break Points

If you were getting whiplashed during parts of this game, it may have been because the Blazers had 12 fast break points, almost four points more than their average.

After a tie game at the half, the Blazers were blistering hot in the third quarter, scoring 43 points. Pat Connaughton’s alley-oop slam in the fourth quarter from CJ McCollum was the loudest I’ve heard the Moda Center crowd in a while. Portland never looked back in the fourth quarter, opening a lead as big as 19. Portland also shot 17-31 from 3-pt range.

Box Score

Up Next

The Blazers hit the road to Dallas to take on the Mavericks on Friday. Tip off is at 5:30 PM. Keep hitting the refresh button on Blazer’s Edge for further analysis of this game and more.

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