Deni Avdija recorded 28 points, six assists and four steals, and the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder for the second straight night, prevailing 118-108 on Wednesday.
Jrue Holiday made five 3-pointers while scoring 19 points and Sidy Cissoko added 19 as the Trail Blazers halted their longstanding troubles with the Thunder. Portland had dropped 19 of 20 against Oklahoma City before the two impressive victories, the first being 123-103 on Tuesday.
Damian Lillard added 18 points, Toumani Camara had 14 and Robert Williams III scored 10 for the Trail Blazers. Avdija and Cissoko each knocked down four treys.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points and Isaiah Hartenstein scored a season-best 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with 11 rebounds and six assists for Oklahoma City.
Alex Caruso scored 14 points, Aday Mara and Kenrich Williams added 11 apiece and Jared McCain tallied 10 on just 3-of-14 shooting for the Thunder.
Donovan Clingan grabbed 12 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who hit 45.7% of their field-goal attempts and made 19 of 49 shots from behind the arc. Portland made 25 of 26 free throws and sank all 14 fourth-quarter attempts.
Oklahoma City connected on 42% of its shots, including 11 of 36 attempts from 3-point range. The Thunder were 23-of-28 from the line.
The game was tied before Cissoko and Avdija each made two free throws to give Portland a 103-99 lead with 3:10 left.
After Gilgeous-Alexander split two free throws, Avdija sank a trey to make it 106-100 with 2:53 remaining. Lillard added a floater in the lane to make it an eight-point margin with 2:02 to play.
Oklahoma City trailed by six before Clingan scored on a fastbreak dunk with 47.2 seconds left. Avdija then stole the ball and drove in for a dunk to make it 116-106 with 36.5 seconds remaining as Portland closed it out.
Mara made two free throws with 23.4 seconds left in the third as Oklahoma City trailed 88-85 entering the final stanza. Early in the fourth, Nique Clifford hit a tying 3-pointer before Williams’ basket gave the Thunder their first lead of the second half.
Williams added two free throws to cap the 9-0 spurt and give Oklahoma City a 92-88 lead with 9:58 remaining.
At halftime, Portland led 56-50 behind 12 points from Avdija. Hartenstein scored 12 in the half for Oklahoma City.
