Trail Blazers 116, Celtics 109
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Al-Farouq Aminu scored a career-high 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Portland Trail Blazers pulled out a 116-109 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night at the Moda Center.
CJ McCollum added 17 points and eight assists, and Gerald Henderson came off the bench for 15 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Trail Blazers (40-36).
Portland won its third consecutive game overall and sixth in a row at home.
Isaiah Thomas scored 22 points but made only six of 21 shots from the field and had five turnovers for the Celtics, who lost their second game in a row. Reserve guard Evan Turner had 14 points for Boston (43-32).
Thomas scored 13 points and Turner added 12 to fuel the Celtics to a 58-54 halftime lead. Mo Harkness had nine points and eight rebounds for Portland at the break, but he didn't score in the second half.
The Celtics stoked their lead to 75-64 midway through the third quarter. The difference was 81-71 before the Blazers used a 10-0 run to tie it late in the quarter. Boston carried an 83-81 edge into the final period.
Aminu sank back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter to give Portland an 87-83 lead. With Henderson leading the way, the Blazers built the margin to 102-89 with 8:02 to go. Boston responded with an 8-0 run to close within 102-97. Thomas knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 104-102 with 3:35 remaining.
McCollum's driving layup increased Portland's lead to 107-102, but Thomas made a pair at the line to close it to 107-104 with 2:18 left.
Amir Johnson's tip-in cut the gap to 108-106 with 1:54 remaining, and Jae Crowder's 3-pointer gave Boston a 109-108 lead with 1:08 to play.
McCollum sank a fadeaway, then set up Aminu on a breakaway dunk to push the Blazers ahead 112-109 with 49.2 seconds to go.
Damian Lillard -- who finished with 14 points on 3-for-16 shooting -- went 4-for-4 at the line in the closing seconds to wrap things up for Portland.
Boston led 31-30 after a freewheeling first quarter in which Kelly Olynyk scored eight points on 3-for-3 shooting, including 2-for-2 from 3-point range.
The Celtics scored the first seven points of the second quarter to go ahead 38-30. Thomas' 3-pointer upped the margin to 52-41 with four minutes left in the quarter. Boston took a four-point advantage into intermission.
NOTES: Boston F Jae Crowder, who missed the previous eight games with an ankle injury, was back in the starting lineup, and he scored 13 points. "He's a winning type of player," Portland coach Terry Stotts said. "He does whatever they need him to do." ... The Celtics lost for just the fifth time in their past 11 visits to Portland. Boston defeated the Blazers 116-93 at the TD Garden on March 2. ... Since joining Portland's starting lineup on March 23, F Mo Harkless was averaging 13.0 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting .541 from the field through four games. ... Portland entered the night 20-10 in the last 30 games, tied for the fifth-best record in the NBA over that duration. The Blazers were 14-2 in their past 16 home contests. ... Boston went into the game leading the league in opponents' turnovers (16.4 per game) and 3-point field goal percentage (.328) and second in steals (9.2 per game).