By Aaron Fentress | The Oregonian/OregonLive and Joel Odom | The Oregonian/OregonLive
CJ McCollum hit a career-high nine three-pointers and finished with 44 points to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to their first victory of the season, a hard-fought 128-126 overtime win against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night at the Moda Center.
McCollum’s final three-pointer of the night ended up the biggest, as he fired and hit from the left wing for what proved the game-winner with 6.3 seconds to go in overtime.
Portland’s Robert Covington stole James Harden’s pass on the Rockets’ ensuing possession, and the Blazers (1-1) held the ball for the win.
McCollum made 9 of 16 threes on the night, with four of the threes coming in the third quarter. In addition to his big scoring night, McCollum also had eight assists. Damian Lillard added 32 points and nine assists. Jusuf Nurkic finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Harden matched McCollum’s 44 points and also had 17 assists for the short-handed Rockets (0-1), who had only nine available players. Christian Wood added 29 points and 13 rebounds.
The Blazers made 19 of 45 three-pointers (42.2%) and shot 46.1% overall. Although the Rockets shot 51.1% from the field, they hit just 11 of 35 threes (31.4%). (Aaron Fentress and Joel Odom | The Oregonian/OregonLive)
