Trail Blazers spoil Kevin Durant’s milestone in win over Rockets
Toumani Camara scored a career-high 25 points and the Portland Trail Blazers spoiled Kevin Durant's milestone night with a 111-105 home victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
Durant recorded 30 points and 12 rebounds and swished a 3-pointer with 7:57 left in the third quarter to move into seventh place on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
Durant passed legendary Wilt Chamberlain (31,419). His career point total sits at 31,435 after Houston's second consecutive loss in Portland.
Shaedon Sharpe had 20 points and eight rebounds while Deni Avdija also scored 20 points for the Trail Blazers, who have won five straight games and seven of their past eight. Caleb Love added 18 points for Portland, which outscored the Rockets 34-15 in the fourth quarter to finish off the two-game sweep.
Amen Thompson recorded 24 points and nine rebounds and Reed Sheppard added 20 points off the bench for Houston. Jabari Smith Jr. added 13 points and eight rebounds.
The Rockets were just 6 of 28 from the field in the final quarter, including 1 of 17 from 3-point range.
The Trail Blazers edged Houston 103-102 on Wednesday.
The Rockets led 90-77 entering the final stanza Friday but Portland got back into the game with an 11-0 run to start the quarter.
Later in the quarter, Avdija scored seven straight points on a 3-pointer and four free throws as Portland took a 102-99 lead with 2:43 remaining.
A dunk by Sidy Cissoko gave Portland a 107-103 lead with 1:03 left. Camara made two free throws to make it a six-point advantage with 30.5 seconds remaining and the Trail Blazers finished off the win.
Houston shot 41.7% from the field and made 10 of 44 3-point attempts. The Rockets outrebounded Portland 56-43, similarly to Wednesday when they held a 57-38 edge on the boards.
The Trail Blazers connected on 41.6% of their attempts on Friday and were 16 of 44 from behind the arc. Cissoko added 13 points and Donovan Clingan collected 15 rebounds.
Durant's 3-pointer to pass Chamberlain gave Houston a 67-65 edge and seemed to spark the Rockets.
The score was knotted at 72 a short time later when Durant sank a 3-pointer to start a 14-2 burst. Sheppard made two treys during the surge and Durant hit another to cap it and make it 86-74 with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter.
Houston led 29-28 after the first quarter despite Camara hitting all four 3-point attempts and scoring 16 points in the period. The Rockets led 56-55 at halftime.