Lillard scores 25 in 23 minutes as Portland pulls away in the third quarter to beat the Thunder 123-103

Damian Lillard scored 25 points in 23 1/2 minutes, sat out the entire fourth quarter and still led the Portland Trail Blazers past the Oklahoma City Thunder 123-103 on Tuesday night at the Moda Center, before a crowd of 19,367. The teams went to halftime tied at 59 after a first half in which neither side led by more than seven, and traded 14 lead changes over the night, before Portland won the third quarter 38-21. Deni Avdija added 24 points, six rebounds and eight assists, and the Blazers knocked down 19 of their 50 3-point attempts.

• Game: NBA regular season, 2026-27 (game ID 0022600216).
• Final: Portland Trail Blazers 123, Oklahoma City Thunder 103 (26-27, 33-32, 38-21, 26-23).
• Site: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon. Attendance 19,367.

Neither team led by more than seven in the first half

Lillard opened the scoring with a 17-foot step-back jumper with 10:49 left in the first quarter, and Portland controlled the opening six minutes; Jrue Holiday's 25-footer made it 18-11 with 5:40 left, the Blazers' largest lead of the half. Oklahoma City went ahead for the first time at 3:57 on a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander layup for 19-18, and Aday Mara's running dunk with 1:09 left in the period pushed the Thunder to 27-22 — their biggest lead of the night. Donovan Clingan's alley-oop with 4.4 seconds left cut it to 27-26.

The second quarter followed the same script. Chris Youngblood hit two 3-pointers off the Portland bench in the first three minutes, Jared McCain answered with one that put Oklahoma City up 46-42 with 5:51 before the break, and the score was tied seven more times after that. Lillard's two free throws with 37.8 seconds left gave Portland a 59-57 edge, and Mara's dunk with 21.8 to go sent the game to the locker room level.

A 27-9 run to close the third

McCain's 27-footer with 8:14 on the clock put the Thunder back in front 69-67, and Lillard answered 45 seconds later from 30 feet. Ajay Mitchell's pull-up restored Oklahoma City's lead at 71-70 with 7:09 left in the quarter — the last time the visitors were ahead. Twenty seconds later, Avdija's 12-foot pull-up put Portland in front to stay.

Over the rest of the quarter the Blazers outscored Oklahoma City 27-9. Lillard had 10 of those points: a mid-range jumper, a 28-foot 3, a driving layup and, with 1.1 seconds showing, another 30-footer that ended the period at 97-80. Robert Williams III finished a Lillard feed with a dunk, Holiday scored three points and Scoot Henderson hit a 3 of his own. The Thunder managed two field goals in that stretch — a Gilgeous-Alexander jumper and a Kenrich Williams 3 — and got the rest at the line.

Both teams confirmed the verdict with their first substitutions of the fourth: Sidy Cissoko came in for Lillard and Nique Clifford for Gilgeous-Alexander as the quarter began, and neither leading scorer returned. Portland reached its largest lead of 22 with 4:34 to play on two Henderson free throws for 118-96. Bennett Stirtz scored 10 of his 13 points for Oklahoma City in those final 12 minutes.

Fifty 3-point attempts, 57 points from behind the arc

Portland won this game from the perimeter. The Blazers took 50 3-pointers — more than half of their 91 field goal attempts — and made 19, 38.0%, while Oklahoma City went 8 for 22. The 57-24 edge in points from deep accounts for the entire margin, because the rest of the shooting was even: both teams finished at 44.0% from the field, and the Thunder grabbed one more rebound (45-44) and scored more in the paint (38-34).

The other two advantages were ball security and the foul line. Portland committed eight turnovers to Oklahoma City's 12, shot 24 of 26 from the line (92.3%) against the Thunder's 21 of 27, handed out 26 assists to 20 and got 38 bench points to 32.

Avdija shot 8 of 15 for his 24 points and finished at plus-21, the best mark in the game. Cissoko scored 17 in 33 minutes, Toumani Camara had 12 and went 4 for 4 at the line, and Clingan was held to seven points but led all players with 13 rebounds and blocked two shots. Holiday and Henderson scored 11 apiece off the bench, Youngblood eight.

Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 26 points but needed 22 shots to make eight, missed all four of his 3-point attempts and kept his total up by going 10 of 11 at the line. McCain added 21 with four 3-pointers in seven tries, Mitchell had 14, and Mara posted a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double in 26 minutes with four offensive boards. Isaiah Hartenstein had nine rebounds and five assists. All five Thunder starters finished between minus-7 and minus-18.

The Thunder's worst defensive night, with a rematch on Wednesday

The 123 points are the most Oklahoma City has allowed in 11 games this season; the previous high was the 120 it gave up in a loss at Dallas on Oct. 29. The Thunder, playing without Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Jaylin Williams and Thomas Sorber, had won four straight and fall to 8-3. Portland, without Ja Morant, Shaedon Sharpe and Vit Krejci, snaps a two-game skid at 7-3, a half-game behind the Thunder and Minnesota in the Northwest Division.

The win also closes a gap in the Blazers' profile: they had won five of six on the road but lost two of their previous three at the Moda Center, scoring 103 points in each defeat. This time it was Oklahoma City that was held to that number.

The teams play again at the Moda Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET), the second half of a back-to-back the NBA scheduled in Portland. The Blazers lead the season series 1-0.