Portland Trail Blazers play ‘somewhat of a complete game,’ still lose 116-115 to the Boston Celtics: Game rewind

The Portland Trail Blazers put together a solid game at both ends of the court Tuesday night against Boston but in the end couldn’t handle Jayson Tatum, who scored 32 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists.

Tatum hit a three with 7.8 seconds left to give the Celtics a four-point lead, and Boston held on to win 116-115.

Damian Lillard scored 28 points and had 10 assists. The Blazers put up a season-high 31 assists.

Though the Blazers lost, they certainly played better than they did in four recent losses to winning teams.

“I thought we played a somewhat complete game tonight,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We fought tonight. We showed a different fight than we’ve shown over the past couple of games. Tonight was a different game.”

Lillard agreed with Anthony’s assessment.

“I like the way we played,” he said. “I thought we played a really good game.”

Portland coach Terry Stotts said it certainly was a tough game to lose but felt his team’s performance represented progress.

“There were a lot of positives for us to take away from that game,” Stotts said.

WHAT IT MEANS

The sixth-place Blazers (31-23) now trail the fifth-place Los Angeles Lakers (34-21) by 2 1/2 games in the Western Conference standings.

IT WAS OVER WHEN

The Blazers erased the memories of a pitiful offensive performance against Miami by starting out Tuesday night’s game shooting 56.5% from the field and making 7 of 14 threes in the first quarter to take a 38-30 lead.

Boston (29-26) came back in the second quarter, but the Blazers still led 60-57 at halftime thanks to 11 points from Lillard and 15 from Norman Powell, who made 6 of 8 shots.

In the third quarter, Lillard scored on a 20-foot runner to give the Blazers a 76-70 lead. But when Tatum hit a three with 3:44 remaining in the quarter, he gave the Celtics an 82-80 lead.

Boston led 92-87 at the end of the quarter. During the final two minutes, Lillard made an errant pass that Tatum intercepted and took back the other way. Lillard got in front of him, and at the basket the two players banged knees, leading to a foul call on Lillard, who was in obvious pain but did not leave the game. Lillard has banged knees with players several times this season.

Tatum scored 17 points in the quarter.

The Celtics continued to lead throughout the fourth quarter. CJ McCollum hit a jumper to cut Boston’s lead to 107-104, and then Lillard made two free throws to make it 107-106 with 2:49 to go.

After a Boston score, the Blazers had a possession in which they got off several shots that missed, got three offensive rebounds and then Lillard made a three on an inbound play to tie the game at 109-109.

Boston answered with a Tatum score and then got a stop that led to missed three from Tatum. At the other end, Lillard drove inside and then passed the ball out to McCollum in the right corner. He hit a three to give the Blazers their first lead of the quarter, 112-111. That led to Boston calling a timeout with 47.7 seconds remaining.

Tatum drew a foul on a drive and made both free throws to take a 113-112 lead.

Lillard then missed a jumper on a chance to take the lead. Boston made the Blazers pay when Tatum hit a three with McCollum on him to give the Celtics a 116-112 lead with 7.8 seconds to play.

“Not many people can make that play at that time, that shot, that Tatum did,” Anthony said.

Game over, right? Not quite.

The Blazers used their final timeout to advance the ball and then Powell made a 31-foot three with five seconds left that made the score 116-115.

The Blazers then fouled Marcus Smart with 3.5 seconds remaining. He missed both free throws, the second one on purpose, knowing that the Blazers didn’t have a timeout remaining.

Lillard got the rebound and all he had time for was to throw the ball the length of the court and hope for the best but the effort missed badly.

“When it came down to it at the end, down one, I missed my shot, (Tatum) hits a three and it’s a two-possession game and we basically used our last timeout to advance the ball,” Lillard said.

SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT

Jusuf Nurkic had eight points, seven assists and nine rebounds. He also made three steals and blocked one shot. It was clear that the Blazers worked to get him the ball more and he responded with some aggressive moves to the basket but mostly became a facilitator.

“We played through him a little bit more,” Stotts said. “The impact he had defensively, obviously if you look as plus-minus, he was very good. We were good when he was on the floor.”

Nurkic was plus-19 on the night.

Anthony shook off an extended shooting slump to make 10 of 15 shots for 25 points.

Kanter came off the bench for nine points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes.

SHOWED UP AND FIZZLED

The Blazers committed 14 turnovers and allowed Boston to shoot 42.9% on threes.

NEXT UP (Blazers schedule)

The Blazers are off until Friday, when they play at San Antonio to start a two-game trip that ends Sunday at Charlotte.

— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).

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