Morris jumper in OT lifts Wizards past Trail Blazers
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Markieff Morris sank a 17-foot baseline jump shot with .4 of a second remaining in overtime to give the Washington Wizards a 125-124 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers Saturday night at Moda Center.
John Wall scored 39 points for the Wizards (41-24), who won their fifth straight game. Bradley Beal had 26 points and Otto Porter 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit.
CJ McCollum scored 34 points and Damian Lillard added 33 for the Trail Blazers (28-36), who saw the end to a four-game winning streak.
McCollum scored 25 points to stake Portland to a 70-49 lead at halftime. Wall had 21 for Washington. The Blazers shot .643 from the field (27 for 42) before the break.
The Wizards outscored the Blazers 33-21 in the third quarter to close the gap to 91-82 heading into the final period.
Bojan Bogdanovic nailed a 3-pointer, then Morris converted a three-point play, and suddenly Washington was within 98-97 with 6:36 to play.
Consecutive treys by Al-Farouq Aminu and Lillard and a dunk by Jusuf Nurkic gave Portland a 106-97 lead. The Wizards then went on a 15-0 run -- Wall scoring 13 of the points, including three 3-pointers -- and led 112-106 with 1:10 to go.
Lillard hit a free throw and Aminu sank a 3 to cut it to 112-110 with 48 seconds to play.
Nurkic made a pair at the line to tie it at 112-112 with 23.3 seconds on the clock.
Wall missed a wide-open shot at the foul line just before the final horn in regulation, and it was on to overtime.
Lillard sank a 30-foot 3-point shot to give Portland a 120-117 lead with 2:16 left in the extra session. Wall scored on a drive to cut it to 120-119, and a Gortat tip-in gave the Wizards a 121-120 edge with 1:24 remaining.
Lillard hit a floater, then a driving layup, and the Blazers were back on top at 124-121 on a floater with 35.7 seconds left.
Beal made 2 of 3 at the line to trim the difference to 124-123 with 31.8 seconds to play.
Portland made 15 of 23 shots (.652) in running out to a 36-30 lead after one quarter. Washington shot well, too -- 11 for 18 (.611).
McCollum got hot, sinking five shots in a row, and the Blazers extended their advantage to 50-33 early in the second quarter.
The Wizards scored seven points in a row to get to within 50-40, then closed further to trail 56-49 late in the quarter. The Blazers closed the half with a 14-0 run to go into intermission in front by 21 points.
NOTES: Replays showed Markieff Morris caught a pass with his foot on the end line just before his winning shot. But the referees didn't see it, and the play wasn't reviewable. ... Washington is 39-16 since starting the season 2-8. ... The Wizards have won the last five times they've played the second of back-to-back games. "You can't give in to the schedule," Wizards coach Scotty Brooks said. "You can't give in to four games in five nights in four different cities. You have to play your game every night. We all get paid to play and coach 82 games, and we have to do it. My job is to adjust the minutes and make sure everybody is as fresh as I can."