PORTLAND, Oregon , March 2, 2018 (News agencies) - Damian Lillard wasn't concerned. He knew his shots would eventually fall. Lillard finished with 35 points after a slow start and the Portland Trail Blazers rallied to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-99 for their season-high fifth straight win. Lillard missed all seven shots from the field in the opening quarter. "I was just missing. I was missing a lot of shots short, kept hitting the front of the rim. When it was leaving my hands it felt good. I just knew I had to shoot the ball it a little bit higher," he said. "I really wasn't worried about it, honestly." CJ McCollum had 19 points and Jusuf Nurkic added 16 for Portland, which improved to 36-26. It was the first time Portland was 10 games over .500 since the end of the 2014-15 season. Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 points and 17 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who lost their fourth straight in the Moda Center. After struggling in the first half, Portland mounted a comeback in the second and pulled ahead 84-82 on Shabazz Napier's running jump shot with 8:07 left. Al-Farouq Aminu and McCollum hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Portland a 92-86 lead with 3:48 left. Lillard's 3 extended it and the Timberwolves couldn't catch up. The teams split the season series 2-2. "It's tough not to come out of here with a win - we would have loved it," Towns said. "Now we have to go out and get the next game. Learn from our mistakes." The Timberwolves were playing their third game without Jimmy Butler, who had surgery on Sunday to repair a meniscal injury in his right knee. It isn't clear when he'll be able to return. Butler is the team's top scorer, averaging 22.2 points. Portland shot just 25 percent in the first quarter (6 for 24). McCollum went 1 for 5, and the Blazers trailed 24-19. Lillard had been hot going into the game, averaging 31.4 points in February, the highest scoring average for a Blazer in a single month in team history. Towns hit a 3-pointer that put Minnesota in front 47-36, but Lillard answered with his first basket from the field, a jumper, then added a driving layup and a free throw. The Blazers cut the lead to 49-44 at the break. Towns had 21 points in the half, including 19 in the second quarter alone. Portland opened the second half on a 7-0 run to go up 51-49 for a short-lived lead. Andrew Wiggins' jumper extended Minnesota's lead to 74-64 late in the quarter. Lillard's 3-pointer and rebound basket from Davis got Portland within 78-75 going into the fourth quarter. "He started hitting some long 3s - he made some superstar shots. That happens with Dame," Towns said. Blazers starter Maurice Harkless left the game in the first half with a left knee injury. He did not return. Wiggins added 21 points for the Timberwolves. Towns has had a double-double in a league-high 55 games this season. Elsewhere, the National Basketball Association (NBA) can sometimes feel like an endless game of one-upmanship, but LeBron James took it to another level Thursday. A day after James Harden of the Houston Rockets had a highlight for the ages when he faked a player nearly out of his shoes before calmly hitting a three-pointer, James answered with a play that rivaled Harden's in terms of court wizardry. James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers were in a tight contest at home against the Philadelphia 76ers, was driving to the hoop when he found himself confronted by one of the few NBA players he could not run through: Joel Embiid, the 76ers' 23-year-old All-Star center. James was also blocked on his right side, where Tristan Thompson of the Cavaliers was tangled up in a screen with Robert Covington of the 76ers. No matter. James, who was named the Eastern Conference's player of the month for February earlier in the day, dribbled once to his left, brought the ball around his back, tossed it through Thompson's legs, and then leapt over Embiid's outstretched leg and regained control of the ball inside the key. With a clear path to the basket, he finished with a left-handed layup. James, who finished the game with 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, was in no mood to celebrate after his team lost by a score of 108-97, but he summed up his acrobatics by telling reporters, "That's probably one of the best plays I've had in my career." Embiid, as he often does after wins, got the last laugh on Twitter. He had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in the game and his post managed to celebrate his team's victory while also appearing to accelerate his recruiting pitch for James, who can be a free agent this summer. There was a great deal of debate online in the immediate aftermath of the play as to how intentional it was. Some assumed James had lost control of the ball, while others believed the entire thing was intentional. James, who was unaware of the full scope of the play until he was shown a video of it at halftime, said it was a little of both. "It was planned for me to go behind my back; it was not planned to go between his legs," he said. "But some of the best alley-oops are some of the worst passes." Harden's play carried no such ambiguity - except, perhaps, for armchair referees who declared a push-off or a travel. Early in Houston's eventual 105-92 victory on Wednesday, Harden was being guarded near half-court by Wesley Johnson of the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden feigned a drive before stopping on a dime to go back behind the three-point line. Johnson, trying to match the change in gears, ended up falling backward onto the court, leaving Harden without a Clippers player within 10 feet. Harden, the favourite for the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award, then rubbed the Clippers' faces in the misfortune by taking his time in setting up the three-point shot as his team-mates went berserk on the sideline.
