Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers heat up late, upset Oklahoma City Thunder

The Portland Trail Blazers trailed for most of the game but heated up from the outside when they needed it most and pulled off the upset win over the powerhouse Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night (Monday in Australia).

Damian Lillard top-scored for his squad with 31 points on 9-of-18 field goal shooting and no bigger points than in the final moments when the Trail Blazers trailed by eight points, 103-95 with under three minutes to go in the game.

Lillard made three consecutive three-pointers in his team’s next three possessions and the Trail Blazers trailed by just a single basket, 107-104 with 2:11 to go in the game.

Lillard added two more three-pointers, one to tie the game and the other to give his team a three-point lead, and helped the Blazers end the game on an 11-3 run to notch the upset with against one of the teams considered to be title contenders this season. Lillard finished 8-of-14 from behind the arc.

As a team, Portland was hot from behind the arc making 19-of-44 three-point attempts, or 43.2 percent. C.J McCollum and Al-Farouq Aminu added 22 and 16 points, respectively, for the Blazers, which snapped a three-game skid.

The Trail Blazers improved to 16-24 for the season but are still out of the playoff picture while the Thunder dropped to 26-12, third in the Western Conference.

The losing side was led by Kevin Durant’s 28 points and Russell Westbrook had a big double-double of 25 points and 15 assists. OKC also wasted the best scoring game of the season from Kiwi big man Steven Adams, who had 17 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field with 10 rebounds.

The Thunder have a good chance of returning to the win column soon with a match-up against the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday while the Trail Blazers will host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.